Space Opera
by RenkonNairu
Summary: -AU- Sailor Moon and the Saiyan Prince help each other repel an attack on the Earth. Now the Moon Kingdom and Saiyan Empire must join forces to stop a common enemy.
1. Purple Prince, Pink Princess

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Toei Animation, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment.

Space Opera

Chapter One: Purple Prince, Pink Princess

The Prince brushed a strand of lavender hair away from his face, only to have it fall right back into his eyes. No matter how long he grew his hair, there always seemed to be that little bit in the front that just refused to grow long enough to be held behind his ears, never mind being pulled back into the tight no-nonsense pony-tail with the rest of it. Ah… the downside of being half-human. He suppressed a sigh and shifted in his seat, uncoiling and recoiling his tail around his waist to a more comfortable position.

"Helm, status?" Captain Son asked at the Prince's side. Because Goten knew his royal Highness wanted to ask '_Are we there yet?_' but wasn't about to do it himself.

"Sir! Three minuets to hyper-space drop." The senior navigation officer answered promptly. "Sublight-drive will have us there in another five minuets after that."

Sitting in what, on any other starship, would have been the Captain's Chair, the Prince cast a sideways smirk at Captain Son standing beside him, stiff with military discipline. Minutely, so subtly that no one else would have been able to catch it, the Captain turned his chin to the Prince and returned his smirk with one of his own. Their messages were clear.

'_You know me so well._'

'_You haven't changed since we were kids._'

"Eight minutes until we reach Earth." The Captain translated.

"Yes, Sir." The nav officer nodded sheepishly. "Eight minutes until we reach our destination."

This statement was met by a choir of low, excited murmurs from the rest of the bridge crew. "Eight minuets to shore-leave!" "Eight minutes to _Earth-girls_!" "Eight minutes until I can have a drink!"

Reclining in the Captain's Chair, his chin resting on his cheek, only loud enough for the Captain to hear, the Prince muttered, "Eight minutes until my holiday officially starts."

To which the Captain replied, "Eight minutes until I get to see my mom."

Then, because they weren't on vacation just yet and they were still officers on a warship of the Saiyan Empire, the Prince asked, "Helm, how close does our entry vector take us to the Lunarian kingdom?"

There was no official treaty between the Saiyan Empire and the Moon Kingdom. But they did have a sort of unspoken truce. The Empire's military outnumbered the Moon Kingdom's Sailor Senshi almost a thousand to one, but at the same time, the Saiyans found the Lunarian's crystal powers to be arcane and mystifying. They didn't understand the Sailor warriors or their all-powerful Queen Serenity. Vegeta XIV refused to order either their conquest or destruction until he understood their power and the threat that it might pose. Inversely, the Lunarians were a pacifistic people by nature. They only ever fought when provoked. They never _started_ their wars. Conquest and glory meant little to them, caring instead for (and here most Saiyans tended to scoff) _love_ and _light_.

Still, there was no need to worry the soft-hearted hippies. A Saiyan warship passing to close to their area of space did tend to send most species diving for shelter or beseeching their gods for aid. No need to cause panic and hysteria, and raise tensions between their two nations.

"Entry vector takes us within three-thousand kilometers of the Moon Kingdom, Highness." Answered the senior navigation officer. "The Tasien Space Port is already holding a bay for the _Patriot_."

"Change our vector and bring us in on Earth's other side." Ordered the Prince. After all, why settle for only three-thousand kilometers (a measly distance by space-travel standards), when you can put _forty_-thousand kilometers between you instead. Plus, the Prince had a more personal reason for wanting to avoid the Moon Kingdom. Some years ago, while he'd been visiting the Earth with his mother, there had been an incident between him and a Lunarian. Truth be told, the Prince barely remembered it. He just remembered Nappa being uncharacteristically worried and his father being practically _livid_. That was right before Goten was -for all intents and purposes- _given_ to him as a companion. "We'll park the _Patriot_ in the Bowman Port."

The bridge crew of the _Patriot _did not unanimously groan in impatience and irritation at that order. While the detour did add an extra seven minutes to their flight time, they were all officers of the Empire's Space Navy and knew how to conduct themselves with dignity and restraint… At least until their shore-leave officially began. Then all bets were off.

Three minutes and an unaccounted for eleven seconds later, the _Patriot_ dropped out of hyper-space and quickly adjusted its sublight vector to swing around the Earth opposite its Moon and head for the Bowman Space Port.

"Place looks busy today." The Captain commented watching the running lights of several ships come and go from the port. Wizzing, zigging, and fluting about.

"That doesn't look like normal port traffic." The Prince sat up straiter in his seat, his lavender tail tightening around his waist ready for a possible fight.

Then the _Patriot_ cleared the planet and the bridge had a clear view of the Bowman Space Port.

What Goten had mistaken for uncommonly heavy traffic was actually a defensive battle. The ships who's running-lights they saw before were small one-man fighters the humans used for space combat -since they didn't have the skill with _ki_ to fight on their own. Each Earth-fighter had at least two, in some cases three armored alien warriors on its six. They were outnumbered and being slaughtered. In the midst of the whole thing, awkwardly parked at one of the port's bays that had not been designed for it's shape, was the enemy's ship.

Round and saucer-like. Painted in shades of white and yellow with one bulbous dome protruding like a bubble out the top to one side. Every Saiyan on the bridge recognized the design almost instantly.

"That's an Ice-jin ship!" The Captain exclaimed at the Prince's side.

There was a beat of silence as every officer on the bridge suddenly realized that their leave not only would have to be postponed, but might be canceled all together. Then the Prince cleared his throat.

"Red alert." He said a tad impatiently.

Goten snapped to attention immediately and started shouting orders. "Red Alert!" He repeated. "All crew to their stations. Scramble the troops and open the Pod-bay doors. Com, open a channel to the port. I want to know the situation. First squadron priority defense and damage control. Second and third squadrons take out the Ice-jin ship. Officers of rank are to be captured alive and able to speak, if possible. All others are expendable."

There was a confident chorus of "Sir!" before everyone moved quick to carry out their orders.

The Prince stood from the Captain's Chair, offering it back to the Captain. "The bridge is yours."

Goten smirked. "And where are you off to, Your Highness?" He already knew the answer.

"Oh… I thought I'd stretch my legs…" He replied cryptically, once again attempting to brush his lavender bangs behind his ear with just as little success as before.

Sure enough, not long after the Prince left the bridge, his lavender pony-tail and white armor was seen flying towards the battle. He must have made a quick stop at his quarters to ditch the blue cape and pick-up his sword, because the blade flashed every now and again when the lights of the battle hit it as it sliced through the enemy fighters like they were made of butter.

'_Lucky bastard_.' Goten thought to himself. The Prince got to go out there and actually _fight,_ while he had to stay on the ship and play Captain. Nothing got his Saiyan blood boiling faster than the prospect of a good fight. No one on the bridge crew was any different. Goten saw the hungry look in their eyes as they watched their monitors or peered out the wide viewport at the carnage in real time. Saiyans were born to fight. Sometimes, they craved it more than food or sex. It was one of the reasons why their military was so fearsome, their Empire so strong. They practically thrived on battle.

…

The Ice-jin were actually a minority within their own nation.

The Ice-jin Ascendancy was ruled by only a handful of families and, to the best of the Empire's intel, they were the _only_ Ice-jin in existence. As such, the Ascendancy's armies were comprised of a mixed assortment of soldiers from all the planets they ruled. Most were conscripts. Warriors forced to fight under pain of death to either themselves, their families or even their entire race or planet's. But there were those that had actually enlisted. The odd and occasional sadist who delighted in inflicting suffering, did it with a smile, while striking a dramatic or even _flamboyant_ pose.

None of those types seemed to be present at this battle, however.

Were he not in a vacuums and holding his breath until he could get inside the port, the Prince would have sighed in disappointment. The Ice-jin Ascendancy had been the Empire's enemy for as long as he could remember, but he had fought against them deplorably little since his coming of age. His father -more accurately his mother acting _through _his father- preferred to keep the their son and Heir Apparent insulated from the more… _imaginative_ soldiers of the Ice-jin's military.

The Prince cut his way through the throng of warriors, all from different races, wearing mismatched armor. They were cut down easily. A real disappointment to an Elite warrior like himself. After a while he was forced to begrudgingly admit that he wasn't going to get a good fight out of any of this. Best to just end it quickly and not waist his or his men's time. As much as the Saiyans loved to fight, they hated trivialities.

Focusing his _ki_ and channeling his energy through the enchanted blade of his Brave Sword, the Prince sliced an opening for himself in the Ice-jin ship. A gust of atmo as well as several unlucky crew members were sucked out by the sudden pressure change. The Prince unsympathetically ignored them as he flew in through the opening he'd just made. If they were to weak to realize they could use their _ki_ to insulate themselves from the cold and the vacuum of space, then they weren't worth his pity.

Once inside the ship, the prince sealed off his entrance with what scrap he could find that hadn't already been sucked out, welding it shut with his _ki_. Once the outer hull was again air-tight, he cut open the nearest blast-door and was rewarded with perfectly breathable -if slightly musty- air once again. He took a few deep breaths to work the oxygen back into his system before continuing on his way. From what he remembered of Ice-jin ship blueprints, the bridge should be… Ah! That way!

Sword in hand, the Prince turned down a narrow corridor, following the curve of the ship towards the main bridge and -presumably- the commanding officer in charge of this attack.

He did run into a fair share of ship personal and security officers on his trek. But in the narrow corridor, they were forced to bottle-neck and the Prince picked them off easily. Really, there was no challenge here. How disappointing. A real waste of his time and energy. It was a real wonder the Ascendancy was considered their greatest enemy. With worthless soldiers like these.

Finally, he reached the bridge.

… Only to find that another warrior had beaten him to it.

A young woman about the Prince's own age, perhaps a year or two younger, was battling an alien wearing the bars of a ship's captain. She wore the same sailor suit with pleated skirt as all the Sailor Senshi of the Moon Kingdom, but hers was in shades of pink. A shade of pink only slightly less bright than her obscenely long hair, pulled up into two oddly-shaped odango that somewhat resembled rabbit ears. The brooch on her breast was also a bit strange. A heart-shape. The Prince had only ever seen Senshi with circles or stars as their brooches. A heart was new to him. But then again, the Lunarian were all about love and light. Really, it wasn't all that strange after all.

The alien she battled had the blueish-purple skin and amphibian took of a Kaerujin, with two small face tentacles that gave the look of a thin mustache. He smirked, giving his amphibian face an almost comically sinister look. The Senshi was doing her best, but the Kaerujin clearly had the upper hand in this fight.

The Prince didn't particularly like Lunarians, but he didn't exactly dislike them either. In all honesty, he was ambivalent on the subject. But he knew that he did not like the Ice-jin or those that served them, and so, when it came to picking sides, if you don't want to pick someone to fight _with_, choose someone to fight _against_. The Kaerujin was going down!

Leaping forward, the Prince shot one short burst of _ki_ between the two, as a warning shot, to get their attention. After all, he loved being the center of attention, ever since he was little. Both parties paused to face the newcomer.

"S-Saiyan!" Stuttered the Kaerujin.

The Senshi took his distraction as her opportunity. Raising her weapon, a short, brightly colored stick with the crescent moon on its end, she called out, "Moon… Healing… _Escalation_!"

And it was the strangest attack the Prince had ever seen. It wasn't an energy attack. She wasn't focusing her _ki_ through the wand like he did with his sword. In fact, he could feel no battle aura from either it or her at all. Just the normal baseline _ki_ of any living thing. But a spiral of sparkling… _something_ came cascading out of the crescent moon tip and enveloped the Kaerujin in a glittering light.

At first the Prince thought the glitter and sparkles were somehow smothering or asphyxiating him. But then the Kaerujin cried out, "_Refresh_!" and the sparkling light dissipated to reveal him kneeling on the deck, still alive, with a bemused -almost childish- smile on his face. It was… _unnerving_. No wonder his father feared their power. The Prince just witnessed it first hand and he couldn't understand it either. To defeat an enemy without even _harming_ them. Leaving them with an innocent child-like smile on their face… It was disturbing.

"That was a close one." The Senshi sighed with relief, wiping nonexistent sweat from her brow. She looked up at the Prince. "Thanks for the distraction. I don't think- Don't I know you?"

The Prince bristled at her casualness. He'd had people drawn up by their thumbs for less. Sheathing his sword, he raised his chin and looked down his nose at her. "I am Prince Vegeta XV, Heir Apparent to the Saiyan Empire. You will show me the proper difference, Lunarian!"

…

Technically, Small Lady wasn't supposed to go sneaking off to Earth. The planet around which her kingdom turned was actually the property of the Saiyan Empire.

But it was the closest planet to her own little moon. It filled the sky over Silver Millennium, their capital city, captivating the eyes with its marbled blue and white glow. She had been sneaking off to Earth ever since she was little and had gotten rather clever at it over the years. Today, she was passing herself off as a tourist. Dressed in civilian clothes common to the Empire, Small Lady first made her way to one of the two space ports that controlled and regulated travel to the planet's surface. Her intension was to slip-in with one of the many tour groups that went planet-side to see the sights. She chose the Bowman Space Port because its orbit kept her farther away from her own kingdom and by extension, father away from her mother's Senshi. Any one of them could identify her in a second.

But Small Lady did not intend for the port to be attacked by an alien menace while she was there. Oh, poo. Nasty bad guys spoiling her fun! What's a Soldier of Love and Justice to do?

Her duty of course.

Sure, this station was technically under foreign sovereignty and she had absolutely no jurisdiction here what-so-ever. But that didn't matter. Love and Justice were universal concepts that spanned the cosmos. Across every planet and every star. And as a Sailor Senshi, it was her duty to protect them! So, her little 'holiday' was put on hold in favor of the greater good. Pulling her transformation compact from her chest where she wore it as a brooch, Small Lady held the crystal inside it aloft and cried the words that had been drilled into her since before she could walk.

"Moon Prism Power… _Make-Up_!"

Her body was enveloped in rainbow light and for a moment, the by standards forgot their panic for a moment to gaze at the Sailor Warrior that had just appeared in their midst.

"In the name of Love and Justice!" Small Lady shouted over the crowd at the enemy ship. "I'm the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon! And in the name of the Moon, I will punish you!"

Used to fighting Saiyans and amongst the forces of the other ruling families of the Ascendancy, the invading soldiers scoffed at her naive monologue and fetish uniform. After all, how threatening was a pair of pink pigtails in a short skirt? But with a bit of Moon Tiara Action they learned their lesson quickly. Never underestimate a girl with pigtails in a short skirt.

Slowly, Small Lady, as Sailor Moon, made her way inside the enemy ship. The quickest way to end this would be to take out their leader. To use the Moon Stick to exorcize him of the evil in his heart and convince him to give the order for his troops to stand down.

The saucer shaped ship was a labyrinth of narrow corridors, all looping and spiraling through the bulky disk of the ship. Small Lady darted from passageway to passageway searching for the command bridge, occasionally having to use her tiara to subdue an enemy soldier here and there. Finally, the corridor opened up onto a chamber with a wide bubble dome. Small Lady paused, staring at the battle taking place outside. The station's regular defense force had joined the fray. She could see their fighter-ships darting and flitting about, shooting missiles and laser bolts at the alien combatants.

"And who are you supposed to be, little girl?" Asked a cold voice behind her.

Small Lady spun around, her pink pigtails swinging wildly. He was not tall, but he was taller than she was. With blueish-purple skin and a salamander face. If Sailor Mercury were her she could probably tell the younger Senshi his species, what planet he was from, what values his culture healed, and their main agricultural resource. But Ami wasn't here. So, all Small Lady knew was that he was a frog-faced bad guy attacking a neighboring nation and placing innocent people in danger. That was unforgivable.

"I'm Sailor Moon!" She announced. "I fight for Love and Justice and I'm gonna be the one who stops you! In the name of the Moon!"

"How cute…" Frog-face scoffed. Then, without another word, he extended his hand and shot a beam of energy from his palm at the young Senshi.

Small Lady dodged the beam, singeing the heel of her pink boot before crawling for cover behind a computer console. Silly mistake. She knew about Saiyans and their '_ki_' abilities. When she was younger, on one of her secret and forbidden excursions to Earth, Small Lady had met a half-Saiyan boy who boasted and showed off to her how he could blow up things just by pointing at them. Anyone who planned on attacking any part of the Saiyan Empire must have similar abilities. It was foolish of her not to remember that sooner.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Small Lady reflected that maybe sticking her neck out in another nation's sovereign territory wasn't the best idea she'd ever had. Not because Sailor Senshi had no jurisdiction within the Empire, but because Senshi weren't trained to combat the sorts of enemies that Saiyans tended to attract. Crawling to a second, better hiding place, the young Sailor Moon took a second deep breath and tried to remember what that half-Saiyan boy told her about _ki_ almost ten years ago. It was supposed to be something like the combination of life-force and battle aura… and willpower? How does that help?

She didn't get the chance to put that little bit of knowledge to use, however. (Not that it would have been particularly helpful in this particular situation.) Her cover was blown out from over her head by a second ki-blast from Frog-face.

"Kiyaaaaa!" She screeched and was thrown several feet in the air, her skirt whipping up around her thighs, threatening to expose her panties. The Moon Stick went skittering off to the side and Small Lady's eyes darted wildly, trying to locate the magical weapon while still keeping track of Frog-face and staying alive.

"What are you even doing here, Lunarian?" He asked. "Last I heard, you haven't got a treaty with the Empire. You're out of your element, little girl."

Good, he was talking. Lording his superiority over her. That meant he was distracted. Best of all, he was distracting himself without any prompting from her. Small Lady took the opportunity to crawl to where she last saw the Moon Stick fall.

"Or is this the Moon Kingdom's attempt at making a treaty with the Empire?" He continued. "Help defend one of their stations. Show them how useful you can be. …And in their gratitude, welcome your kingdom as a trusted ally. Pfff. The Saiyans wouldn't know gratitude if it bit them in the tail. They're more likely to demand your surrender and punishment for using your powers in their territory."

There was the Moon Stick!

Small Lady snatched up the weapon, fast as lightning, and climbed back to her feet. Once again turning to face her enemy. She raised the wand over her head. "I don't care about the Saiyans or what they think!" She said. "I fight for the protection of Love and Justice, and sovereign borders don't matter for that. Everyone is entitled to Justice and Love. Moon… Healing… Kiyaaaa!"

Her attack was cut off by another blast from Frog-face. It looked like she wasn't going to get a move in. Her skills and techniques were to slow to keep up with an alien master of ki-based techniques. She needed a diversion or distraction, or else to hide, or put enough distance between herself and her opponent to prepare her attack. Small Lady dodged a few more attacks, all the while looking for her opening. Then something very unexpected happened.

Another burst of ki energy shot between them, causing both Small Lady and Frog-face to pause. The who thing giving her an odd feeling of deja vu, remembering the stories her mother used to tell her about when _she_ was Sailor Moon. Only instead of a _ki_ blast, it was a rose...

Slowly, both Small Lady and her opponent turned to see a newcomer.

Wearing Saiyan armor, a sword in one hand, his other outstretched towards them. Blue eyed. Lavender hair pulled back in to a pony-tail. Lavender tail wrapped tight around his waist. On the shorter side of average height, but by no means 'short'. Lean but muscular and very, very handsome. Small Lady quickly decided she liked him very much. She also though that lavender hair looked vaguely familiar, but there wasn't time to think on that now! His sudden appearance and intrusion gave her the distraction she needed to launch her attack and cleanse Frog-face of his evil.

Once again raising the Moon Stick over her head, she cried, "Moon… Healing… _Escalation_!"

She loved that sound it made. The sparkle and shine of a successful attack. The way they always called out, "_Refresh_!" as they were cleansed. It made her proud to do what she did.

When it was done, and Frog-face knelt on the floor, a bemused smile on his face, Small Lady turned to the Saiyan newcomer. Excuse me, the _half_-Saiyan newcomer. No pure-blood Saiyan had hair like that. Long and flowy in a pale shade of lavender. Gosh! It really was very familiar! How common was that hair among half-breeds?

"That was a close one." She sighed with relief, wiping nonexistent sweat from her forehead. "Thanks for the distraction. I don't think- Don't I know you?"

He glared at her reproachfully for a moment. What? Had she done something to offend him? All she said was 'thank you'. Or was gratitude considered rude within the Saiyan culture? Did it offend their all important _pride_? He was handsome, but Small Lady's like for him was quickly dropping. Pretty wasn't everything and Saiyan warriors had a reputation.

Sheathing his sword, he said, "I am Prince Vegeta XV, Heir Apparent to the Saiyan Empire. You will show me the proper difference, Lunarian!"

Oh, the attitude! Yeah. Small Lady quickly decided that she didn't like him one bit. He might be royalty, but that didn't give him leave to make an ass of himself. Her mother taught her that at an early age. Besides, she might be in his territory and maybe didn't exactly have permission to be here in the first place, but she was the daughter of a royal house too! It should be _him_ showing _her_ the proper difference. Especially since she just, basically, saved his station almost single-handed.

"Oh yeah?" She snapped at him, taking a step forward, drawing herself up to her full height. He was only a couple inches taller than her (not counting her hair). "Well, I'm Princess Usagi II, Heir to the Moon Kingdom! _And_ I just saved your little space dock! How about showing me some of that difference too, huh!"

Something dangerous flashed behind his summer-sky blue irises, but it was there and gone in a second. Small Lady barely registered it before she was suddenly remembering all the stories Venus used to tell her about the infamous and deadly tempers of the Saiyans. Maybe she shouldn't have snapped at him so harshly. Taking one cautious step back from him, she considered raising her Moon Stick to defend herself. Or… would he interpret that as an attack. Should she just remain still and try not to provoke him further?

"What are you even doing here… _Princess_?" He asked.

"I was in the neighborhood when they attacked and decided to help… _Prince_." She replied honestly.

He continued to glare at her. Academically, she knew that the worst thing he could do to her would be to ship her back to her mother in Silver Millennium and let her parents deal with her. At least, that's the worst that could be done to her if the Prince wanted to avoid a war between their two nations. In all honesty, Small Lady wasn't so sure if battling the Ice-jin and the Moon Kingdom on two separate fronts wouldn't suit the Saiyan military just fine. After all, wasn't it said that the Saiyan race thrived on battle? That handsome face was suddenly looking very, _very_ dangerous now.

Then, the Prince sighed, seemingly in exasperation. He nodded towards Frog-face still smiling on the floor. "What did you do to the Kaerujin?"

"The frog-guy?" She blinked. He was concerned about an enemy? That didn't seem right. "He's been exorcized. Of his evil, I mean."

The Saiyan Prince's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Will he still remember who he is or what his mission was? Or have you rendered him catatonic?" The Prince's glare then returned his attention to her. "He's as useless to me dumb as he is dead. I would be _very_ upset if you wiped important intel about this unprovoked attack from his mind. In fact, my father might interpret such an act as conspiracy with our enemies."

"I've done no such thing!" Small Lady once again found herself stepping forward, challenging his accusations. "If you're so worried, why don't you just ask him yourself!"

He continued to glare at her skeptically for a moment or two longer before turning towards the… what did he call it? Kaerujin. "Can he speak?"

"What did I just say?" She was quickly becoming more and more frustrated with this Saiyan Prince. He was nothing like the only other Saiyan she'd met in her life. That half-Saiyan boy with the same color hair, ten years ago. He had been friendly. She liked him. They played together until the moon came up. Then things turned ugly... But this Prince was nothing like that boy. Maybe it was an age thing. Or maybe it was the difference between growing up on Earth versus on Vegeta-sei.

The Prince stepped in front of the Kaerujin and, glaring down at him now, asked, "Do you know who you are?"

There was a prolonged pause in which Small Lady began to wonder if maybe she had inadvertently wiped the man's mind. The Moon Stick was supposed to exorcize evil. Depending on how much evil a person had in their heart… it was possible that the wand could wipe a person's mind. But she'd never heard of something like that happening before. After all, no one is _that_ evil. Everyone has a bit of good in them.

Then, finally, Frog-face spoke. "I… am…?" A pause. "Cui. Captain Cui of the _IAS Cutlass_."

The Moon Princess forwent her sigh of relief at not having accidentally wiped the man's mind and instead flashed a superior smirk at the Saiyan Prince. Her way of silently saying, '_I told you so._'

The Prince ignored her. "What was your mission here?"

"Mission…" The was another pause as Cui looked off to the side, as if seeing something visible to his eyes only. "Destroy Earther space ports. Cut off ground communications. Isolate from the Empire… send a message to the monkeys…"

That something dangerous that Small Lady glimpsed earlier was back. Only this time, instead of fitting by for only a second, it lingered. Turning those beautiful sky-blue eyes a mercilessly cruel shade of ice. "And what was the Ice-jin message?"

Cui continued to look off to the side. Not meeting the Prince's deadly azure eyes.

"What do the Ice-jin want us to know?" He pressed, reached a hand down, the Prince haled the dazed and slightly confused Captain to his feet. "Which of the Ascendancy's ruling families do you work for?"

Slowly, Cui's frog-face turned back to meet the Prince's glare. He looked directly into those hard cobalt eyes and said one word. "Kold."

…


	2. Standard Procedure

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Toei Animation, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment.

Space Opera

Chapter Two: Standard Procedure

"No, Governor, I'm not mad…" The Prince practically growled over the comm, carful to keep his face as close to impassive a mask as he possibly could.

After the battle was won, all the Ice-jin's soldiers that were still alive were rounded up. Standard procedure then followed. Separate out the officers of rank and lock them in the _Patriot_'s detention cells to wait for interrogation. All other soldiers were then disposed of. They were of no use to the Empire as they were, basically, just foot soldiers with no information of value. Oh, they begged for their lives. But defectors couldn't be trusted. If they were willing to betray one master, they'd be willing to betray another. Once that was taken care of, the Prince's Intelligence team set to work on interrogations while his Technicians were tasked with pulling the ship's logs from the _Cutlass_.

While all that was going on, Captain Son opened a secure comm channel to the duly appointed Governor of Earth so that the Prince could hear his excuse for failing to respond to the Space Port Attack. "…I'm absolutely _livid_! My father gave you control of this planet because you assured him you could do the job. _Can_ you do the job? I don't think I need to tell you how important Earth is."

At the Prince's side, Goten suppressed the urge to sigh. It was times like these when he didn't appreciate his position as Captain of the Prince's flagship, and more importantly, the Prince's confidant. As an officer of the Empire's Space Fleet, he understood his friend and sovereign's frustration with the local ruling body's failure to defend their own space. But, at the same time… the Earth's Governor was his uncle.

Goten watched Raditz struggle to suppress a scowl as he replied to the Prince. "I apologize for my failure, You Highness." He ground out, teeth set on edge. "I was otherwise engaged with a family emergency. If you or your father wish me to step down from my post, you need only name my replacement."

There was a beat of silence in which Goten wondered if the Prince really was going to name someone else to grant the Governorship of Earth to. He quickly ran through all the possible candidates. His father was definitely out of the question! But Gohan was a good bet. In fact, Goten was rather confident that his older brother would make an excellent government official, regardless of whatever position he filled. Unlike the rest of the Son family -and unlike most Saiyans in general- he had the perfect temperament for quiet bookwork and paper-pushing. The sort of tasks that everyone loathed but were still necessary for any governing body to function. Gohan would probably make things run much more smoothly and efficiently, too.

Then there was Goten himself. Erm… no thank you. Given the choice, he much preferred baby-sitting the Prince to sitting at a desk overlooking biannual financial reports. At least as Captain of the Prince's flagship he got to see action every now and again. Not to mention the free pass it gave him into the Imperial Court -not that he was a social climber, or anything. Then, of course, there was the fact that they were friends and he'd much rather kick it on an alien planet with his best buddy than let his ass widen in a desk chair. He was pretty sure the Prince preferred he remain right where he was as well.

After a prolonged pause, the Prince brushed his bangs out of his eyes and growled. "The report I will send to my father will not reflect kindly on you, Governor Raditz. What to do with you, however, will be his decision." He stood. "Captain, the comm is yours."

They waited to the count of ten after the Prince left before Goten sat down in front of the secure comm screen.

"Hey ya, Squirt!" Raditz smiled as if he hadn't just been chastised by the second highest authority in the Empire.

"Hi, Uncle Razzy." Goten smiled back, as if he hadn't just been watching his uncle being chastised by the second highest authority in the Empire. "Aside from the attack and being in hot water, what's new?"

Raditz sighed in exasperation. Then said, as if remarking on inconvenient weather, "Your father's dead again."

"Oh." Goten sighed, completely unfazed by what would have normally been sobering and tragic news. "What'd he sacrifice himself for this time?"

"'The greater good', ya know, the usual."

"Great." Goten shook his head, suppressing a smile. "Was that the 'family emergency' you mentioned? How's my mom taking it?"

Here Raditz flashed a self-deprecating smile. "Lets just say, I'd rather face the whole Royal Family right now rather than your mother."

"That bad, huh."

"She's convinced he keeps dying on purpose just to get away from her." His uncle laughed. Then, sobering, he asked, "Because of the Ice-jin attack, can I assume you're not coming home for a visit?"

Goten shook his head in disappointment. "Shore leave has been canceled until further notice." He explained. "The Prince is convinced that, as soon as the King reads his report, the _Patriot _will be recalled back to the capital. We're trying to process the enemy's ship and men as quickly as possible. Our thinking is that if we can get all the requirements of standard procedure done before the King's orders reach us, we can get at least an afternoon, or possibly a whole day planet side."

Raditz snorted. "That's wishful thinking if I ever heard it! Ugh… I do not want to be the one to tell your mother that you're not coming home. Not so soon after her mate died again." A pause. "Maybe I'll make your brother do it. Yeah…"

He didn't know whether he should cringe in sympathy for Gohan, or grin maliciously at his older brother's expense. "Do what ya gotta do."

Their conversation might have continued if a young Ensign hadn't chosen that exact moment to interrupt, presenting a datapad to the Captain. "Sir!" He said, a little over eager to please. "Here is the dossier on the Kold Family of the Ice-jin Ascendancy as requested by the Prince."

Goten suppressed his annoyance and accepted the data pad with a curt nod. The Ensign saluted, crossing one fist over his chest, before preforming an overly practiced about-face and returning to his station. Goten sighed, casting an apologetic smile at his uncle. "Sorry, but I gotta-"

"I know, I know." Raditz held up a hand. No explanation was necessary. He used to be in the Space Navy too. "Go do what you gotta do. I'll tell the family you said 'hi'."

"Thanks, Uncle Razzy. And, hey! When you wish my dad back to life, tell him he needs to come by Vegeta-sei sometime. The King's hard-up for a good spar and the Prince is sick and tired of being his only acceptable challenge."

Raditz suppressed a smile. "If we can get him to stop rescuing cats from trees and bringing hope to the fuzzy-wuzzies, I'll stuff him in a Pod and send him your way."

"Thanks again, Uncle Razzy." Goten saluted, his fist crossed over his chest, before cutting the comm feed and ending the call. Suppressing another sigh, Goten rose to find his Prince.

His Highness was in the viewing and sound booth attached to the _Patriot_'s interrogation room, his arms crossed over his chest, a scowl on his face. He shifted his gaze only slight when the Captain entered, brushing his lavender bangs out of his eyes uselessly.

Goten held up the datapad he carried. "The Kolds."

"Thanks, Chibi." Said the Prince.

In public, on the bridge of the _Patriot_ or at Court it was always 'Captain', or 'Son-kun', very rarely 'Goten'. But they did grow up together. Goten had been the Prince's companion ever since they were small children, seven and eight, respectively. They knew far to much about each other to maintain the kind of formal distance that military service and court etiquette required of them. So, in private, Goten was 'Chibi', his old nickname from when they were younger, and the Prince… he was 'Trunks'. An Earth name given to him by his mother because she got real tired, real quick of shouting 'Vegeta!' and being answered by two different generations of royal Saiyan ego and attitude. But it was tradition for the Heir to carry the name of his ancestors, so -like 'Chibi' could only be used in private- the name 'Trunks' was only known to the Prince's family and trusted confidants.

Goten leaned against the two-way glass of the viewing room and looked sideways at the interrogators at work. Decided he didn't have a taste for creative cruelty now that the battle was over and looked back at Trunks.

The Prince brushed his bangs out of his face as he perused the information the _Patriot_'s archives had on the Kolds. One of the Seven Families that ruled the Ice-jin Ascendancy. 'Kold' was both the family name and the given name of the Head of the Family. Kold had two sons, Cooler and Freeza and no extended relatives. To spite how small the actual family was, they controlled almost a fourth of the Ascendancy's real estate, which meant they controlled most of its trade as well. They were a powerful enemy to have, even on their own, without the rest of the Ascendancy to back them. Trunks sighed. Great. More good news to put in his report to his father.

He set the datepad down on the soundboard and crossed his arms back over his chest. "So, how's the family?"

He was trying to change the subject and Goten knew it. "Good, I guess. Dad's dead again."

"That sucks." Trunks muttered. He ran a hand through his pony-tail mournfully. "Now I have to let my sister style my hair."

"Honestly, he dies so much, I'm not really all that- wait, what? You two bet on my dad dying!"

Trunks only shrugged.

"You dick!" Then he quickly changed his tactics. Name calling stopped being effective a long time ago. Instead, Goten went for a different and much, much newer point of anxiety for his friend. "So… what are you gonna do with the Lunarian Princess?"

The Prince bristled in irritation at the question. Uncoiling and recoiling his tail. Ha! Got ya!

"Its a sticky situation." Trunks muttered, bitting his thumbnail -a nervous habit he picked up from his mother. "I've alerted the Moon Kingdom that we have their Princess. But they want us to turn her over to them immediately. Thing is, she wasn't just a by standard in the battle, she actually participated. Which means _I_ can't let her go until she's been fully debriefed. As if that's not bothersome enough, she's being very uncooperative. I really wish she would just sing so I can kick her off my ship and out of the territory. I don't much like the idea of having a whole squad of Senshi descending on the _Patriot_."

"Aw… Is the mighty Prince of the Saiyans scared of a couple of women in pleated skirts?"

His friend gave him a very serious look. "You weren't on the _Cutlass_ when she took out the Kaerujin -Cui. She waved that wand of hers and did this thing. I don't know what it was, but it was… _disconcerting_. I'm starting to understand why neither my father or grandfather ever ordered a purge of Earth's moon. I couldn't get a read on her power at all. Going up against Sailor Senshi would be like fighting blind."

"Want me to try and do the debriefing?" Goten offered. "She's a Princess, so its perfectly acceptable for the Captain of the ship to be talking to her instead of the normal administrative officers."

"Anything to get her out of here faster." Trunks nodded.

…

Small Lady was sick of talking to these Saiyans. Her plan of sneaking off to Earth was good and shot to hell. By now they would have called her mother and she would be in a world of trouble when she got home. It was best to just get it over with. After that they'd lock her in her room for a few weeks then everything would be back to normal. If only these damn Imperial _monkeys_ would just let her go!

"I cannot be any clearer than as crystal-clear as I'm being." She tired one final time. "I was just in the neighborhood."

"I'd be more inclined to believe you, Highness," said her interviewer, "if you actually had a tourist visa or any form of documentation that says you were cleared to enter Imperial territory."

She groaned. This was getting her nowhere. "That's it! I wanna talk to who's in charge. Where'd that pompous purple-haired Prince of yours go?"

…And it was at that exact moment that the briefing room door slid open. For one fleeting moment Small Lady wondered if she had somehow magically summoned the Saiyan Prince to her aid (or more likely, to her greater hinderance). But it wasn't the Prince who walked through the door, but rather another Saiyan. This one with the bars of an officer adorning his armor.

"Captain Son, sir!" Her interviewers snapped to attention, saluting with their fists over their hearts.

Interesting. 'Son' was not a Saiyan name. Not that she was any sort of expert in Saiyans and their names to begin with. But in this case, she was pretty sure 'Son' didn't fit with the common Saiyan naming schemes she'd observed thus far.

"At ease, gentlemen." Captain Son likewise saluted, his fist crossed over his heart. "The Prince has asked me to deal with Her Highness. You're dismissed."

"Sir!" They saluted again and then hustled out of the room faster than Small Lady could say 'make-up'. If she didn't know any better, she'd think they didn't like her.

The Captain pulled up a chair at the table at which she sat. He pored two glasses of water and offered one to her. She accepted it reluctantly, glaring at him with suspicion and distrust. For the most part, Captain Son ignored her glares and sipped his own water appreciatively.

Finally, after a prolonged silence, he said, "You don't have to speak. Let me tell you what we already know, Princess."

To this, Small Lady only deepened her suspicious stare.

"You were found on one of our space stations in our territory." He began. "You have no identification on you. Neither do you have any papers allowing you -a citizen of the Moon Kingdom- passage into Imperial Space. That's called 'boarder hopping', just so you know. You are in our territory illegally. But you already know this."

Small Lady gave a microscopic nod.

"Luckily for you, one of the Senshi of Queen Serenity's inner circle was able to positively confirm your identity." He continued. "We're satisfied that you are, in fact, who you claim to be. So, rather than face our punishment, we're sending you back to your own country."

"Excellent!" She stood. "When do I leave."

"Your Highness, please sit back down. I haven't finished." Captain Son continued to sip his water, unconcerned. "However, you participated as a soldier in the battle with the Ice-jin's advanced force. You participated in an Imperial battle in Imperial Space. I'm not sure just much you know about the Imperial Fleet's policies and procedures, so let me explain to you: We are a warrior nation. You might have noticed this already. It is standard procedure after a battle to treat all combatants in said battle -whether they be civilians or foreige visitors- as soldiers of the fleet until all the reports have been filed. That means, I can't let you go until you have been fully and properly debriefed."

"This report thing isn't going to get back to my mother, is it?" The Princess asked after a prolonged pause. "I, uh… I wasn't exactly supposed to be sneaking off to Earth."

"I think we've well established that fact." And here the Captain gave a small sympathetic smile. She didn't know Saiyans could show sympathy! This was incredible! She couldn't wait to tell Plu! Then his smile shifted from sympathetic to knowing. "This isn't the first time you snuck off to Earth, is it?"

Small Lady blinked at him, startled. "How did you…?"

Now that knowing smile was nothing more than the usual smirk she'd seen most Saiyans wear. "I've accompanied my fair share of royal heirs on unsanctioned excursions to places they shouldn't go and that ended up getting us both in trouble. I know the type."

She blinked at him again. Then, skeptically, "The Prince?"

"The Prince." Captain Son nodded. "You and he are more alike that you might think. Not that I know you particularly well or anything. May I assume this wasn't your first excursion to Earth?"

"Your Prince and I are nothing alike!" He was mean, and rude, and quick tempered, and egotistical, and seemed to like throwing his weight and title around. Hmph! But to the Captain's question, "But.. yeah, I've been going to Earth for a while now. There's actually someone I'm looking for. You see, there was this boy-"

Captain Son held up a hand. "You don't need to disclose your life-story, Your Highness. I'll make a deal with you. You tell me everything that happened and everything you did from the moment the Ice-jin attacked to the moment the Prince escorted you aboard the _Patriot_ and I won't tell anyone that you've done this before and are likely to do it again. Are those terms satisfactory?"

Small Lady thought for a moment. It wasn't like they were gonna let her go without being debriefed anyway. Why not get a bit of cover out of it at the same time. "Yes, Captain, those terms are satisfactory."

…

Forty-five minutes later the Prince could not have been happier to see the Princess off to her Moon Kingdom attendants.

He, Captain Son, and the First Officer escorted the soon to be deported Senshi down the _Patriot_'s main gangplank where two other Sailor warriors waited. One in red, the other orange with a gold-colored heartlink chain around her waist. Apart from the colors, their uniforms were identical to one another and the Prince wondered if the different colors denoted some sort of ranking system, or if they were the Senshis' personal preference. Both explanations sounded equally silly to him.

"Mars! Venus!" Exclaimed the Moon Princess, excitedly.

The Prince couldn't quite understand her enthusiasm. Wasn't she afraid of the eminent punishment that awaited her upon her return to her kingdom? If _he_ had pulled a stunt like this, and the Prince had in the past, then he would not have been pleased to see the Lieutenants his father would send to retrieve him. Then again, neither his father, nor the members of his inner circle subscribed to the same ideals of love, light, and kindness that seemed to be the center around which Lunarian culture turned.

Then Sailor Mars spoke. Her fists going to her hips. One red heel tapping the paneled floor sternly. "Chibiusa!"

The Princess came up short. Her chipper mood suddenly deflating. Her demeanor shifting from optimistic and eager to sullen and dejected.

'_Never mind_.' Thought the Prince. Looks like some things really were universal. For the first time, the Prince felt a small measure of sympathy for the Lunarian Princess. What kind of punishments did they give in the Moon Kingdom? Once, during his teen years, the Prince convinced Goten to help him sneak out of the palace to explore the slums of Salaad, Vegeta-sei's capital city. When they were finally found and returned to the palace, his father started with a beating -light by Vegeta's standards- then, on his mother's suggestion the Prince was returned to the slums of Salaad. He wanted to see how the other half lived, so he would spend a couple of weeks there, living as a low-class warrior. To this day, the Prince _really_ wanted to know what it was his mother said _exactly_. He was _sure_ his father must have misunderstood her meaning, somehow.

What kind of punishment would Queen Serenity visit upon her daughter? For leaving the kingdom and crossing over into another nation without permission from either side… A temporary banishment, maybe? Or would that be a reward for the Princess? Since she was sneaking off in the first place. Either way, it would be burdensome to whatever nation she was sent to. Solitary confinement, maybe? Locked in a cell, no fresh air, no sunlight, only rice and water to eat… His father did that to the Prince once too.

"I'm sorry, Mars." Muttered the Princess, remorsefully.

"Don't be sorry. Lets just go." Venus cast an apologetic smile towards the Saiyans gathered on the _Patriot_'s gangplank. "I think we've imposed on our hosts long enough, and the Queen and King are certainly anxious to have you back."

The Princess stepped forward and joined her fellow Senshi. "Okay, okay. Let's go."

"Ahem." Venus cleared her throat conspicuously.

"Right, right." The girl sighed. Turning back around to face the Saiyans, she flashed a disarmingly charming smile and preformed an equally charming curtsy. Perfectly polished and worthy of the Imperial Court. "I thank you very much for your hospitality, and apologize for any inconvenience I might have caused you."

Oh, _now_ she could behave like a proper lady of breeding. Where was all that charm and etiquette an hour ago when he and his men were trying to deal with her? The two-faced magical bitch!

Still… the Prince had to admit, her smile was quite captivating.

"Do you require an escort to your ship?" The Captain offered at the Prince's side. "Some parts of the port are still unstable after the attack."

All three women smiled coyly. That all-knowing, superior smile women wear when they know they're about to do something surprising and impressive. The Prince was quickly reminded of his earlier unease about the Sailor Senshi and their enigmatic magical powers. His blue eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Oh, we didn't come in a ship." Mars flipped her hair off her shoulders.

Didn't come on a ship? Then how did they get on the station?

"Ready to go, Chibiusa-chan?" Venus asked.

At the nod from the Princess, all three women formed a circle, joining hands. Their brooches all glowed with a similar sparkle to the wand the Princess used back on the Cutlass. The Prince did not like it.

"Goten." He whispered. "Can you sense anything? Any _ki_?"

"No." The Captain muttered in answer.

Both Saiyans took minuscule steps back, unsure and wary of the Lunarians and their unquantifiable arcane abilities. This would be the second time in the course of a day that the Prince witnessed Sailor Senshi magic. That was twice more than most Saiyan warriors saw in their lifetime. Yet, he understood their power no better than he did yesterday.

"_Sailor Teleport_!" All three women shouted, snapping the Prince out of his reflections. There was a flash of light and three streaks of color, one red, one orange, and one pink, went arching out of the station towards the Moon.

The Saiyans stood for several moments staring at the spot they had disappeared from. Blinking in surprise and mild disbelief.

"Well." Goten straitened the collar of the jumpsuit he wore under his armor. "That was… _new_."

"Did… did they just teleport?" Asked the First Officer, disbelieving. "What technique was that?"

Well, whatever it was, it wasn't Instant Transmission, that was for sure. Still…

"A useful one." Answered the Prince.

…


	3. Orders and Priorities

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment.

Space Opera

Chapter Three: Orders and Priorities

"…of course, the Ascendancy's other ruling families are denying involvement in the Kold attack." Even over the comm channel and across all the lightyears between Vegeta-sei and the Earth, the derisive scorn in the King's voice come through loud and clear. "They claim the Kold family was acting on their own without being sanctioned by the rest of the Ascendency. But then, they're not taking any action against the Kolds either. _Ice-jin_! If their pathetic attack had been successful, then all seven of their ruling families would be clamoring to claim a portion of the credit."

The Prince waited for his father to finish. The bad blood between Saiyans and Ice-jin ran deep and spanned generations. Once Vegeta was finished with his rants and ridicule of their race, their nation, and anything else associated with them, then he would give the Prince his new orders. Although, knowing his father as well as he did, the Prince could probably guess his new orders without having to be told.

First, to send Goten down planet-side and draft his father back into the fight. Something which couldn't be done at the moment because Kakarot was currently dead. Then to return to Vegeta-sei as soon as the _Patriot_ was refueled and resupplied. And, because the Ice-jin were involved, once they arrived at Vegeta-sei, command over the ship would be handed entirely over to Goten and the Prince would be reassigned to his father's flagship the _Dominance_. There, he would stand on the bridge in highly polished armor, at his fathers side, and _watch_ the rest of the fleet fight.

"Your holiday is over." His father announced, right on cue. "Send that idiot friend of yours down to collect his brain-dead father. Then-"

What a surprise. The Prince shook his head. "Can't."

The King's eyes narrowed at his son, the glare of the screen making his sharp, angular features appear all the more menacing. "When I give you an order, boy, I expect it to be carried out without question."

So what else was new? "Yeah. But… can't." He repeated. "Kakarot's dead right now."

His father's expression twitched asymmetrically, one of the tells that signified he was trying very hard to hide his true feelings. But the Prince couldn't decide if it was abject irritation or schadenfreudian laughter that the King was trying to conceal. Neither would surprise him. Goten's father died so very often. "Fine then!" The King snarled. "Forget Kakarot. You will return to Vegeta-sei immediately where you will turn control of your ship over to your idiot friend and join me on the _Dominance_ where we will teach these Ice-jin scum what happens when they provoke the Saiyan Empire!"

Sometimes the Prince wished he didn't know his father quite as well as he did. At least then his orders would seem new every now and again or at least, not so tired and old -like a broken record. He brushed his bangs out of his eyes as he said, "Yes, sir."

He brushed his hair out of his face, his other hand hovering over the comm's control console, ready to end the transmission at the final word from his father -because Vegeta _always_ had to be the one to have the final word.

"And, Trunks…"

The Prince froze. His father almost never used the Earth-name his mother gave him. It was always 'Boy', 'Brat', or occasionally (during the rare and uncharacteristic moments when he was feeling affectionate), 'my son'. But rarely ever 'Trunks'. Almost never 'Trunks'. Only when the conversation was serious was it ever 'Trunks'. Cautiously, the Prince replied, "Y-yeah…?"

"The Lunarian Princess…" He paused. Thought. "You're alright. She didn't use any of her magical techniques on you?"

"No…" Trunks replied slowly, unsure why the idea bothered his father so much.

"Good." Nodded the King. "I want you to stay away from the Moon Kingdom. Earth is your mother's home and while I _could_ forbid you from ever going back there, I know you'll never honor that command. So, when this is all over, you may return to your holiday on Earth, but I want you to stay away from its Moon. Do you understand me?"

Yes and no. Trunks understood what his father was literally saying. He just didn't know why. "Does this have anything to do with what happened to me ten years ago?"

"Damn it, boy! If orders were meant to be questioned, they wouldn't be called 'orders'!" The King snarled over the channel. "I swear, if you weren't six million lightyears away, I'd teach you the proper respect!"

The 'proper respect' meant a back-handed fist to the right temple and, depending on just how angry his father really was, a heel to the chest or kick to the kidney.

"Alright." Trunks promised. "I'll stay away from the Moon Kingdom. Its not like there's anything there that would interest me in the first place."

…

Small Lady leaned against her bedroom's windowsill.

Below, the lights of Silver Millennium twinkled and sparkled with a crystal sheen. But she wasn't looking at the city. The Princess' attention was, instead, focused on the blue globe hanging low in the sky over the city. A scattering of white clouds marbled its cobalt surface, obscuring the gemstone blue. It was the same shade of blue as her father's eyes. King Endymion, who had been Prince of Earth prior to the Empire's infringement. She had never asked her father how he felt about his planet belonging to the Empire, or why neither he or the Sailor Senshi fought to keep it. She always just assumed it was because he was King-Consort to the Queen of the Moon Kingdom now and Earth was part of his past.

Then again, aside from one colossal battle that according to her mother's Senshi could be seen from as far away as Jupiter, the Saiyans didn't seem to be doing anything harmful to, or with the Earth. Nothing dark or nefarious like the enemies her parents fought in their youth. The people of Earth certainly didn't seem to mind having a powerful military government watching over them.

On her many secret excursions down to the blue planet Small Lady got the general feeling that Earthlings, over all, were ambivalent to the Empire. No one really loved it, but no one really hated the Empire either. It was just like any other government. Although… that one time, ten years ago, the people of West City were very startled by that half-Saiyan boy. But then again, so was Small Lady. After all, anyone would be surprised and a little scared if the boy you were playing with suddenly turned into a giant ape monster right in front of you. But how was she supposed to know that Saiyans turned into giant monkeys when they looked at a full moon!? She was only six!

He was really nice to her up until the whole weremonkey thing, though.

She remembered they played together for some time. Late in the afternoon until the sun went down. He showed her his _ki_ techniques. Building piles of sand on the playground and then destroying them with different blasts from different angles and distances. She remembered clapping happily at the flashes of light and spray of sand, and gazed in wonder at how the heat and pressure from his power turned the sand to glass. She told him that the glass was a lot like the crystal of her home. Not _the_ Silver Crystal, the crystal that made-up Silver Millennium's streets and buildings. A sort of foggy, glassy, crystal.

Then he asked where she was from.

The sun had already set by that point and the full moon was hanging low over the cityscape, its silver glow just brushing the tops of the skyscrapers. So, Small Lady just pointed. Simply saying, "There."

He followed her finger, looking where she was pointing. That was when he transformed.

At first, Small Lady didn't know what was going on. She thought maybe he'd been turned into a Youma.

His body went rigid for a moment, his hands trembling slightly at his sides, his back going ram-rod strait. It was similar to how her mother described people wing possessed by evil. Then thick lavender hair began to sprout down his neck and along his arms. His hands grew larger, his feet burst from his sneakers. His whole body began to grow, ripping his clothing. Before the Moon Princess knew what was happening, the boy she'd been playing with was replaced by a monstrous purple beast!

A knock at her door pulled the Princess from her memories.

"Come in." She called.

It was her father who entered. Endymion closed the door behind him and leaned against its frame, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Have you come to lecture me, too?" She asked dejectedly. "I already got it from Mama, Mina, Rei, and Ami. I'm just missing Mako and you and everyone in the castle will have reprimanded me for sneaking off."

"Everything I have to say you've already heard." A sympathetic smile. "From several people, apparently." He crossed the room and sat on her bed, patting the space next to him. Ah. So he wanted to have one of their father-daughter heart-to-hearts. "I actually came to see how you're doing. The last time you met a Saiyan, I carried you home in tears."

"I didn't know what was going on back then!" She huffed defensively. "I'm fine, Papa. That was ten years ago. I know about Saiyans now." She began to pace the room in irritation, the hem of her gown swishing over the floor with the motion. "But I am glad to be home. That Prince of theirs is a real pain in the a- uh, back. He's a real pain in the back! I mean, I _helped_ them. I took out the bad guy's leader while he just sort of stood there. He should have _thanked_ me! But, no…. Instead, I had to sit on their ship and answer the same damn questions over and over again. They said it was because of some stupid military rules or something. But I bet it was just because that pampered purple prat didn't like being shown-up by a girl!"

"Saiyan pride is rather infamous." Her father smiled sympathetically.

"I mean, where does he get off!?" Small Lady continued, ignoring the King's comments. "Treating me like that! I'm royalty too! 'Proper difference' my foot!"

"He made quite an impression on you, didn't he." Now Endymion's smile was knowing and amused. "This Prince."

At that, Small Lady stopped her pacing to face her father when she said, "Only because I've never met anyone so unpleasant before in my life!"

"Hm." That amused smile only widened.

"What's that look for!?" She snapped, not appreciating her father's lack of sympathy one bit.

"Oh… no reason." He answered. "Just thinking about your mother…"

Small Lady gave a frustrated growling huff and flopped down on the bed next to her father. "Damn Saiyan." She muttered. Then she sighed, forcing the thought of that vexing violet haired man from her mind. Instead, she took the opportunity to ask her father something that she always wondered about. "Hey, Papa, how come you never fought the Saiyans over Earth?"

Endymion was quiet a long moment. So long, in fact, that Small Lady began to wonder if he wasn't going to answer at all. Maybe she shouldn't have even asked. If it bothered her father that much. Perhaps it was better to just leave well enough alone.

Finally, "Its not the same as what you're thinking." He said. "I was Prince of Earth, but I didn't _rule_ Earth. I was its protector, not its sovereign. When they Saiyans first came to Earth… er, second came to Earth? I know one of them was living down there long before the _actual _Empire showed up. Anyway, when they came to Earth and first made their presence known, it wasn't to concur or destroy the planet. They were just after one of their own. They're a little like wasps, so long as you don't bother them, they won't sting you. So, I left them to their own devices. Earth was in no danger, so there was no need for me to get involved."

"So, they weren't interested in conquest?" The Princess pressed. "Then why is Earth so important to them now?"

Here the King smiled. The same amused and slightly ironic smile that he got sometimes when telling stories of himself and her mother from before she was born. "The Saiyan Prince, the one who now sits on the Imperial Throne, fell in love with an Earth-woman." That smile was a full on grin now. "Just like your mother fell in love with a rude and insensitive Earth-jerk."

"Can Saiyans feel love?" Asked Small Lady a tad skeptically. From what she'd observed during her short stay on their warship, they weren't exactly a cuddly, touchy-feely bunch.

"In all honesty, I don't know." Her father answered. "I don't know much about Saiyans, so I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on them or their customs and practices. But I do know a thing or two about love. And let me tell you, that only a true love can span the distance between planets and brave a path for two people from different worlds to be together. It took your mother and I two life-times to finally be together, and our worlds are practically next-door neighbors. Who knows what the Saiyan King and his human Queen had to go through to be together."

"That's why the Prince is a half-breed." Nodded the Princess. "Because the King fell in love with a Earthling."

"Don't say 'half-breed'." Her father admonished. "Its rude. 'Dual lineage' would be more accurate. But I'm sure they have their own term for it. There's quite a few dual lineage Saiyans running around the Empire now. From what I hear at least."

"Right." Nodded Small Lady. "Hey, Papa, do you think I'll ever meet that dual lineaged boy from ten years ago?"

Once again, King Endymion paused, this time thoughtful. Considering his daughter. "The universe is a big place." He said at last. "But I suppose all things are possible. But that was a decade ago, Chibiusa-chan. You both were very different people back then. You might have _already_ met him again without even realizing it."

"Oh, no." The Princess shook her head, quite sure of herself. "If I found him again, I would know. He was my friend. Up until, well, you know…"

"I remember." Nodded her father. "Why are you so determined to find him again?"

"Because!" And here the Princess paused. Her words faltering. Unsure of how to answer. "Because I need to apologize to him. I thought he was a Youma. And it was my fault he looked at the moon in the first place. Even if we never see each other ever again, I want to make sure he doesn't hate me."

Endymion reached a hand out to pat his daughter on top of her pink pigtailed head. "It was so long ago, and you both were so young then. He probably doesn't even remember it."

…

Trunks stared at the blank comm screen long after his father ended the transmission.

It figured. Travel all the way to Earth, across lightyears of distance, then have to turn around and go home without even setting foot on the surface first! Damn Ice-jin! Spoiling his holiday! And he planned to have so much fun too! It was summer in the northern hemisphere. That meant surfing off the Hawaiian Archipelago. Rafting down the Colorado. Backpacking through the Black Forest. Climbing Mt. Fuji. Sailing, and fishing, and snorkeling. Beach parties. Camping. Then maybe fly down to the southern hemisphere for skiing and snowboarding. Sledding. Hockey! Oh, yes… hockey. Maybe an epic snowball fight with Goten…

Then they would get a couple of women. Dinner in Paris. Dancing in Spain. Then back to their places, or maybe check into one of those resort hotels in Norway, for some hot kinky sex! In fact, forget the surfing and the snowboarding, the sex was a bit of a higher priority. But not anymore, apparently. Not now that the _Patriot _was ordered back to the capital.

Damn! The Prince was mad! Frustrated and man.

Goten would, of course, be more disappointed about not being able to visit his family. Not that Trunks could blame him. Son Chichi was, quite possibly, the best cook in the Empire. (But don't say that to loudly in front of any of the chefs employed at the Imperial palace!) Then, of course, he'd probably want to catch up with his brother, Goahn. And considering the new development of his father's most recent death, the Captain would probably also want to help with the Dragon Ball search. That actually sounded fun! Maybe if their leave hadn't just been revoked, the Prince would have joined them on that.

But no. He had to return to Vegeta-sei.

The door to his quarters slid open without a request for entrance or his permission. That meant it was Goten -speak of the devil. Even if Trunks hadn't sense his _ki _from down the corridor, the Captain was the only person who dared barge into the Prince's quarters without asking. Goten flopped down on the Prince's bunk with a sigh.

"So, what did he saw? Are we going back to Vegeta-sei?"

"What do you think?" Trunks replied, brushing his hair out of his face. Honestly, sometimes Chibi could be so optimistically naive to the point of stupidity. It must be an inherited trait. Both Kakarot and Gohan were the exact same way. Always thinking the best of everything. "How long will it take to resupply and refuel the _Patriot_?"

Goten groaned. "A couple hours, give or take. The men are not gonna be happy."

Neither was the Prince. He crossed his arms over his chest and thought for a moment. Debating whether or not he wanted to incur his father's wrath this week. "If we report engine trouble, that could buy us an extra day. We could stop in and say 'hi' to your family at least. Maybe get some drinks and pick up some women…"

"Ever since the stunt you pulled at 55-Cancree two years ago, your father's been checking the _Patriot_'s Logs every time we return to the capital, that includes the Engineering Logs." The Captain informed him. "If we report engine trouble but there's no documentation of the problem, he'll know you lied to him again and that I went along with it. I'm getting pretty sick and tired of Nappa kicking the crap out of me over _your_ schemes."

"Aw, but hey! Look at it this way, he's just helping you get stronger, Chibi." Trunks grinned. After all, Nappa's beatings on Goten were nothing compared to Vegeta's beatings on Trunks.

"Well it doesn't feel that way when I'm floating in a regen tank!"

"But I bet you feel _amazing_ when you get out." Trunks smiled at the microscopic shrug of confirmation his friend gave. That was thing thing with Saiyans, the harder they were beaten, the more damage they took, the stronger they became. "Besides, didn't you already surpass Nappa a long time ago?"

"Yes." He admitted. "But he doesn't know it."

Trunks grinned knowingly. If Goten didn't really want to suffer through being reprimanded by the King's Lieutenant he didn't have to. It was something the Prince understood perfectly well.

"Sometimes I think you piss your father off because you _like_ being punished." The Captain muttered.

"Of course." That knowing grin turned smug. "Its the fastest way to get stronger that I've found. Not to mention, way more fun than _actual training_! And its always easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission."

Goten only sighed in exasperation.

"So, father's been checking the Engineering Logs?" The Prince asked.

"Yes." Groaned his friend. He _just_ said that.

"Do you wanna see your family before we leave?"

"Ye-" Goten cut himself off before the word could escape his lips and sat bolt upright. "Why? What are you planning?"

Trunks didn't answer, not exactly. He brushed his bangs out of his eyes and stood from his seat in front of the comm, saying, "You go back to the bridge and oversee things like a good Captain should. I'm just gonna head down to Steerage for a bit. See how the boys are doing. Take a look at the engines… Ya know, it _has_ been a while since the _Patriot'_s last tune-up."

The Captain shook his head. Yeah, it would be nice to see his family for a bit, especially after coming so far. His mother would certainly appreciate the visit, with his father being dead again. He could catch up with Gohan and see his niece. That last time Goten laid eyes on little Pan-chan she was still in diapers. She should be about five now. Two years younger than Princess Bra. But… "No. Trunks, if this was just being reassigned to another boarder patrol or policing a fringe system, I'd say sure. Lets sabotage our own ship and take an unsanctioned vacation. But the fleet might actually need the _Patriot_ when they go up against the Ice-jin. Its not just the King that's counting on us this time."

"Damn. Look at you, acting all responsible and stuff." The Prince scoffed.

"I'm serious." Insisted Goten. "This is _real_ war. We're actually gonna go up against the Ascendancy this time! I think rejoining the Fleet is a higher priority right now than a little mini-holiday on Earth."

"_You're_ gonna go up against the Ascendancy." Trunks corrected. "I've been reassigned to the _Dominance_ as soon as we get back to Vegeta-sei."

"That sucks." Goten stood to slap his friend unsympathetically on the shoulder. Ha! This time it would be him having the time of his life, fighting score of soldiers in outer space while Trunks looked on passively. "I'll bring you back a finger or something. As a souvenir."

"Don't go doing me any favors." Sneered the Prince. Not feeling placated in the least.

Goten only laughed at his friend's expense. Then, after a bit of a pause. "Hey, I wonder what those Lunarian Senshi techniques would do against the Ice-jin. Maybe your father should sign a treaty with them so we can actually see them in a fight. I couldn't sense any _ki _from their teleport thing. I wonder where their power comes from. It would sure be a surprise for the Ascendancy, huh."

"I've also been ordered to stay away from the Moon Kingdom." Trunks informed him.

"Really?" Blinked the Captain. "Why?"

"No idea." Shrugged the Prince. "I think it has to do with something that happened ten years ago, a little bit before you and I became friends. But I can't remember it."

…


	4. Meanwhile

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment. Same disclaimer applied for Sailor Moon and related characters.

Space Opera

Chapter Four: Meanwhile...

King Vegeta XIV watched with a critical eye as his insubordinate and rebellious son's flagship dropped out of hyperspace right on time. That was uncommon. The King half expected to receive a message from some unfortunate communications officer, informing him that the _Patriot_ was forced to detour, doubling the time it would take to return to Vegeta-sei. Or that there was a problem with the refueling pumps and were delayed. Or that it would take longer than anticipated to resupply. Any excuse the Prince could come up with to buy himself some time on Earth. But no such message came.

Instead, the _Patriot_ left the Bowman Space Dock as soon as it was refueled and resupplied, and arrived back at Vegeta-sei exactly when it was meant to. Such obedience from the Prince meant that someone else on the ship must have intervened. Probably Kakarot's spawn. He was one of the few that could actually penetrate the Prince's thick, stubborn skull.

Vegeta hadn't been too keen on giving the second son of that Third Class clown to his Heir as a companion. Not only did he not see a reason for it, but Son Goten's station was so far below the Prince's own that an association between them was unheard of. About as unheard of as the King's own association with Kakarot. But Bulma insisted that human children _needed_ socialization -needed to play with other children their own age- and the Prince was half human. So, begrudgingly, the King gave his approval for the boy to have his idiot friend. And he did have to admit, when Goten didn't allow himself to be swayed by the Prince's whims, he did a fairly decent job of keeping the disobedient brat in line.

The glow of the _Patriot_'s sublight drive faded as the main engines were cut and the ship used its forward momentum to carry itself the rest of the way into position, using small jets of energy from the starboard or port sides every now and again to make small angle corrections. Finally, the warship came to rest in the upper front line of the fleet's formation. Now Vegeta waited.

His eyes fixed critically on the _Patriot_'s Pod-bay doors.

In a perfect world, those bay doors would have begun opening the moment the warship came to a halt within formation and the Prince's pod would fly out to rendezvous with the _Dominance_. Of course, in a perfect world, the Saiyans wouldn't need to mix with human blood to breed a stronger race, the Ice-jin would admit to their own inferiority and surrender, and the whole of the North Galaxy would willingly and happily submit to Imperial rule. But this wasn't a perfect world. So, the King waited. His eyes fixed on the _Patriot_'s Pod-bay, counting the minuets it took his insubordinate son to do as he was commanded and adding the time to the brat's punishment when this was all over.

Finally, after the count of seven minutes and fifteen seconds, the bay doors opened and a lone space pod bearing the royal crest floated from the _Patriot_.

"Your Majesty," began one cautious comm officer. "The Prince has requested we open the froward Pod-bay."

Of course he would, the forward bay was a shorter walk to the bridge. "Put him in the aft bay." The King commanded. "And inform him that the King expects him on the bridge immediately."

The bridge was filled with a pregnant silence after that order, everyone was now counting the minutes it took the Prince to fulfill his father's orders. It was something of a public secret, the petty -and sometimes downright juvenile- power struggle between King and Prince. Everyone knew about it, many even witnessed it. But no one talked about it. It wasn't they kind of power struggle normally associated with royal houses, they weren't fighting over influence or control. It was more a domestic power struggle, the kind that all fathers went through with their sons. The King would command the Prince, the Prince would rebel, the King would punish him, the Prince would act out worse, the King would punish him harder, the Prince would relent for a short time, then the pattern would begin again. At present, they appeared to be at the start of a brand new round in their cycle.

With a soft hiss-swish, the double doors that opened onto the bridge parted to reveal the Prince. Four minutes, thirty-seven seconds.

His armor only adequately polished, the royal crest a deep red over his left breast -right over his heart-, the dark blue cape, however, was awkwardly bunched on one side by the shoulder strap of the Prince sword. Vegeta hated that sword. No _true_ warrior needed a weapon. A true warrior was _the_ weapon. But the Brave Sword was -supposedly- a magical sword. That meant it could only be wielded by it 'true' or 'destined' Champion, and that 'Champion' was -apparently- his son. The King still wasn't sure if he believed that load of womprat dug or not, but the Prince was determined to keep the sword no mater what. He was rather like his mother in that respect. Once he decided on something, he dug his heels in and refused to budge, and all Vegeta could do was begrudgingly let him have his way.

Overall, his appearance would be unacceptable for the Imperial Court, but he was decent enough for the bridge of a warship.

"The Prince is on the bridge." Announced the First Officer.

The King ignored the First Officer, instead speaking to the comm operator. "Hale Admiral Nappa." He commanded. "We move out on my mark."

"Sir!" The comm officer gave a nod and hurried to carry out his order while the helm quickly punched in their destination and calculated the quickest and safest hyper-space vector. "Majesty, the Fleet is ready on your mark."

Vegeta smirked in satisfaction. "Punch it."

The stars and constellations that made up Vegeta-sei's skyscape stretched into starlines as the _Dominance_ jumped to lighspeed.

…

Thanks to the fiasco that was her most recent attempt to visit Earth, Small Lady was being kept under a carful watch.

It seemed she couldn't go anywhere anymore without _someone_ finding an excuse to tag along with her.

Today's excursion through the streets of Silver Millennium found her followed by her Guardian, Diana. The young cat was trying to be stealthy about it. Keeping just far enough behind Small Lady that the Princess couldn't see her out of the corner of her eyes. Sometimes crossing the street to follow her from the other side. Or sprinting a few buildings ahead to watch her from the cover of a window box porch garden. Actually, as far as tracking and spying went, Diana was doing a pretty good job. She was employing all the techniques her parents taught her very well.

If only she hadn't forgotten the bell on her collar.

It was very hard to be a sneaky little spy when every move you made was accompanied by a _tinkling-chiming_ noise. Small Lady couldn't decide if she wanted to groan in annoyance at being constantly followed, or smile with amusement at just how cute the Mau kitten really was. In the end, the Princess decided on the compromise of confronting the little cat.

Small Lady paused in her step, turning around, the ruffles of her gown making a dramatic _swish_ sound. She offered an amused smile, "Did you want something, Diana?"

On the opposite side of the street, in a large planter box on the porch of keepsake store, a white daisy twitched one furry, pointed, gray-violet ear. Small Lady sighed and crossed the street. Walking up to the planter box, she bent down and picked up the small cat from her concealment.

"Ah, Small Lady, fancy meeting you here…" Diana began awkwardly.

"Hm, fancy that." Small Lady agreed. "So, what brings you out here?"

If cats could shrug, Diana would have given an awkward shrug in the Princess' arms. "Oh… ya, know. Mau stuff."

"Mau stuff." Repeated Small Lady. "Not Guardian stuff? Not following me to make sure I don't sneak back to Earth like my parents are afraid I might try stuff?"

"Um… no?"

Small Lady gave a sigh, placing the cat back down on the ground. She loved Diana. The little cat was one of her best and oldest friends. But she really was a terrible liar. "You don't have to worry." She said. "I'm not going back to Earth." '…any time soon.' Was added silently at the end of that. Small Lady had every attention of returning to Earth as soon as her parents, and by extension everyone else, relaxed. She had been going to Earth off and on for ten years now without incident. If the Ice-jin hadn't attacked the other day, she would be on Earth right now.

There was someone there she wanted to find.

With a sigh, the Moon Princess turned her attention to the sky, to the Earth hanging low over the city. The Moon did not rotate like the Earth did, so Silver Millennium was always facing the planet, its gemstone-blue glow was always filling the sky. It seemed like the Earth and the Moon's destinies were permanently intertwined. When the war between Dark Kingdom and the Moon ended in tragedy, all the key players were reborn on Earth. Her father was the Prince of Earth. Her parents met on Earth. When she was younger, she met a half-Saiyan boy on Earth… She wanted to meet that boy again.

"I trust you, Small Lady." The cat assured her. "We all just want to make sure you're safe."

Right. As if she wasn't a Sailor Senshi perfectly capable of taking care of herself. No. That was unfair. Small Lady knew that her parents knew she was capable of taking care of herself. But 'being safe' was more than just taking care of one's self. It was also taking steps not to place the people around you in danger as well. Sneaking into foreign countries illegally did place the other people in Chibiusa's life in difficult situations. Not necessarily 'dangerous' in a literal sense, but definitely sticky. It was made all the worse when one considered her status as a Princess. For the most part, the Saiyan Empire and the Moon Kingdom politely ignored one another. They weren't enemies in any sense of the word, but they weren't exactly friends either. But, if Small Lady kept making her trips over Imperial borders and galavanting around Imperial-held worlds like she was, that could change.

She was aware of all this. But the Princess still had no intentions of stopping her trips anytime soon. Not until she found him.

Her eyes still fixed on the Earth, Small Lady opened her mouth to reply to the cat, but paused when she saw something streak through the sky on its way to the Earth. Squinting, she tried her best to see what it was. It looked kind of like a spaceship, but with the Imperial Fleet off fighting the Ascendancy, there shouldn't be any ships large enough for her to see with the naked eye coming to Earth. It was to soon. She knew the Saiyans were a warrior race, but even they couldn't beat an enemy _that_ fast.

Then, there was a second streak. Also heading for Earth. Then a third.

Three large ships.

Small Lady continued to stare at them. It was hard to tell any real detail from this distance. It was a miracle she could see them at all. But the light they were giving off seemed _wrong_ for Saiyan ships. After dropping out of hyper-space, Saiyan ships used sublight engines and those gave off a reddish glow. These ships' sublight drives looked more yellowish. So, not Saiyan ships then…

Spinning on her heels, Small Lady turned back down the street and started sprinting back to the palace. Something wasn't right and she wasn't gonna figure out what standing in the middle of the street.

"Where are you going?" Diana cantered along beside her.

"To talk to Papa." She said. "Something just landed on Earth and I wanna know what it was. He always knows what's going on, on Earth."

…

Valese wasn't particularly sharp witted. That's not to say that she was dumb, but rather, unworldly. Her parents kept her very firmly sheltered, almost to the point of absurdity.

So, it was no wonder, when she looked up into the clear blue afternoon sky that day gazed in curiosity at the three round ships that defended through the clouds and landed -it looked- somewhere outside Satan City.

Ignorant of any possible danger the ships might pose to her or the rest of the planet, Valese asked her parents for permission to go out. She did not tell them where she was going, but she did promise to be home by curfew. Her parents, never having many -if any- problems from their daughter before, told her to be carful, make sure her phone was charged and have a good time. At which point they gave her a little bit of money and sent her on her way.

…

Dodoria's mission was simple: Kill everyone on Earth.

Perhaps the rest of the Ascendancy wasn't yet aware, after all, it did take the Kold family some time to realize, but the half-breed products of Saiyan-human unions had a greater potential for power than pure-bred Saiyans. No wonder the Earth was so important to the Empire. WIth the human race under their rule, it would take those wretched monkeys only one generation to breed a stronger race and tip the scales in the eternal stubble between the Empire and the Ascendancy.

Kold couldn't let that happen. If the other six Ruling Family of Ascendancy didn't know about the threat the Earth presented then the task fell to the Kolds.

That was where Dodoria came in. One of the two Generals assigned to Kold's younger son, Freeza.

While the Lieutenants of Kold's older son, Cooler, kept the main Imperial force busy. Occupied in some empty and neutral spit of space as a stage for their battle, their eyes turned away from the Earth. Dodoria would purge the small blue planet of all life and send a message to the Saiyans that no matter what they tried, they would never surpass the Ice-jin.

Ideally, the Ascendancy would prefer to destroy the EMpire. To crush then into space dust, scatter them to the stars and erase all evidence that they ever existed. But the Ascendancy _couldn't_ destroy the Empire once and for all, they were near-evenly matched in both strength and tactical skills. So, if they could not defeat their enemy, then it was the job of every one of the Ruling Families to make sure that the Empire could never destroy the Ascendancy. A stalemate was better than a crushing defeat.

Using the Earthlings as breeding-stock, the Saiyans could possibly produce one of those 'Legendary' warriors their propaganda posters are always ranting about. The Kolds, and by extension their soldiers, couldn't let that happen. So, the Earthlings had to go!

Sure, Dodoria could have simply destroyed the planet and been done with it. It would have been far easier and simpler than a ground purge. But that's not what King Kold wanted. He didn't just want to destroy the threat of the half-Saiyans giving rise to a Legendary. He wanted to send a message to the Empire and its King that he couldn't upset the status quo. The Ice-jin will never allow the Empire anything that might give them an advantage over the Ascendency. Nothing would convey that message better than having the Saiyans that already had families on Earth to return home from their battle with Cooler's soldiers to find their home, their mates and their offspring all dead.

"Spread out!" Dodoria commanded. "Kill anything that moves -except our own people."

There was a resounding choir of "Sir!" before three ships worth of troops were deployed around the globe.

…

The Three Star Ball was nestled very comfortably in a patch of thick grass. So thick that it almost covered the bright orange sphere completely.

In fact, Gohan almost missed it.

Passing over the ball once, then pausing in confusion when the Dragon Radar showed it now behind him. Doubling back, flying slower this time, he scanned the thick grass of the field for any hint of a bright orange orb with red stars…

…And there it was!

Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, Gohan landed. Reaching down to pick up the ball-

-and was suddenly hit in the back by a blast of _ki_.

Taken off guard, Gohan went tumbling through the grass. The frames of his glasses bending out of shape, the turquoise material of his blazer tearing slightly at the seems, and the Three Star Ball flying up into the air. Climbing to his feet, the original demi-Saiyan pulled off his now useless glasses and brushed grass and lose dirt off this slacks.

"You surprised me." He said, taking in his attacker's appearance.

The armor that was not standard Imperial issue but rather that of the cobbled together looking armor of one who was either a hired mercenary or else a soldier of the Ascendancy's military. But the possibility of finding either one on Earth was unlikely. But as the two continued to glare at one another, two more aliens appeared. Each of a different species. Each wearing mismatched armor. So then, they were from the Ascendency. During his mandated four years of service in the Imperial Fleet, Gohan learned to recognize them very quickly. They all had the same expression of strained tension, sometimes even desperation.

Most soldiers under Ascendency command were draft soldiers. Conscripts. Warriors forced to fight for their masters under duress. Threatened with their own deaths as an alternative to service. Or the deaths of their families instead. Sometimes even the extinction of their whole race or the destruction of their planet. None of them were truly 'evil'. That was probably how the first was able to get the drop on him. Gohan didn't sense any evil _ki_ coming from the man. The number of Saiyan residence of Earth had steadily increased over the years. It was not uncommon for him to feel a strong battle _ki_ at odd times or in odd places. For the most part, he tuned them out, the other strong _ki_s becoming nothing more than white noise to his senses. It was a foolish mistake.

Then the Three Star Ball came plummeting back downward, only to be caught by the first armored alien.

Gohan held out his hand. "I'd like that back please. I need it for something."

The stranger glanced at the ball in his hand curiously. He didn't know what it was. "Don't worry, Saiyan." He said. "You won't be mending it for long."

So, that was the way it was going to be. Alright then. Gohan didn't know what else he expected really. After all, they were soldiers of the Ascendency, the sworn enemy of the Empire and his race. Regardless of whether or not they fought for the Ice-jin willingly or not, they were sent here for a purpose, and that purpose would most definitely be nefarious in nature.

"Alright then." Gohan pulled off his torn blazer and cast it aside and out of the way. "I guess I'll just have to come over there and take it from you."

…

The Governors Palace was converted from the old World Monarch's palace and predated Imperial occupation. As such, it's architecture was strikingly different from that of similar Imperial buildings on other worlds. This would be nothing more than interesting trivia were it not for the fact that this small difference caused Dodoria's soldiers to fly right over it with barely a second glance.

A big mistake for them.

The only warning the hapless soldiers of the Ascendency had was a quick flash of their scouters before one of the men in their formation suddenly exploded in a burst of _ki_. The rest of the squad all turned in unison to see a Saiyan with a long main of thick wild hair trailing down to his ankles hovering behind them, his arms crossed over his chest, a severe frown on his face. As they stared at him, two other Saiyans joined the first, each wearing the standard issue uniform of a palace guard.

"Now, what would Ice-jin lackeys be doing here?" Said the first. "But I guess its doesn't really matter. You're gonna give me a chance to redeem my earlier negligence with the Bowman port."

...

Okay, so there were three of them and Gohan was only one. That still didn't mean he couldn't handle himself.

The original demi-Saiyan lunged at the one that held the Three Star Ball. But before his blow could connect, one of the other two got him with an elbow to the back, knocking the wind out of him. Gohan gasped. Plummeting to the ground.

In the grass, he rolled over quickly to avoid another blow from the third. Reclaiming a standing position, he assumed a defensive stance and rethought his strategy. There were three of them and Gohan was only one. They may be conscripts, fighting for the Ice-jin against their choice and against their will, but they weren't weak. Gohan some of the best training in the Empire, under his father (when he was actually alive and _around_), and under the guidance of the Namekian master, Piccolo. But, he hadn't fought in years, almost since he completed his requisite four years of service, and he hadn't kept up with his training either.

Maybe rushing in for the Dragon Ball wasn't the best plan.

Following the other know with his senses, Gohan kept his eyes trained on the one still holding the Three Star Ball. They circled him, slowly, looking for an opening in his defenses.

It was a flash of motion in the corner of his eye and a flicker of intent in his senses that gave Gohan just enough warning to block the next blow. Coming at him from the right, one of the alien soldiers lashed out with a whip-like string of _ki_. Jumping high into the air, doing a wide-arched backflip and landing behind the third one. Charging up his _ki_, Gohan fired a quick blast at him. He didn't have much time to celebrate after the blast connected because he was suddenly hit in the face by something smooth, round and very, very hard.

Wiping away a trickle of blood from where he bit the inside of his lip, Gohan glared at his attacker. "Did- did you just hit me with the _Dragon Ball_!?"

The soldier holding the Three Star Ball gave a shrug. "You mean this thing? Seemed like the thing to do. What's so special about it, anyway?"

"Shame you'll never get to find out."

…

Queen Serenity pursed her lips and glanced out the window towards the Earth hanging in the sky over Silver Millennium.

"The Ascendancy is different from the Empire." Endymion continued. "I was content to leave the Earth in the care of the Empire because I knew with an Earthling sharing the throne it would be safe. But three Ice-jin ships just landed there and… I have a bad feeling."

Serenity looked back at her husband, placing a comforting hand over his. Things were so much easier back when they were kids in high school. When she was Usagi and he was Mamoru and they could fight evil without having to worry about stepping on the metaphorical political toes of their neighbors. "The Empire might take it as a challenge if we infringe on their territory."

"I know." The King nodded. "But after the attack the other day, all their ships have pulled out to rejoin the main Fleet and strike back at the Ascendency. There's just what ground forces and resident warriors that were left be hind to protect the planet. They might be territorial and aggressive, but I don't think the Empire will appreciate coming back to find one of the planets under their control now occupied by the Ascendancy. We may not have any sort of treaty with them, but I'm sure they'll still ask us why we stood by and did nothing." He paused. Endymion taking a breath before continuing. "And besides, the protection of Earth is my job. I was the Prince of Earth and -as our daughter reminds me of just recently- I've been very relaxed in my duties for some time now."

Queen Serenity was taken aback for a moment, her eyes shining with surprise and for just a moment, a part of the old Tsukino Usagi could be seen shining through her azure blue irises. "Mamo-chan…"

Endymion shifted their hands, taking hers in both of his. "Usa-ko, I'm going to Earth."

There was a beat of silence where the two did nothing more than gaze at one another. Cobalt blue eyes to clear azure. Communication far more to one another than words ever could. This was something he needed to do. Prince Endymion was forever tied to the Earth. Queen Serenity was forever tied to the moon. It was the main reason why it took them two lifetimes to finally find a way to be together.

"Be carful, Mamo-chan." She finally nodded.

"Always." He nodded.

Standing, Endymion walked to the door and pulled it open-

-only to have his sixteen-year-old daughter tumble off balance to the floor at his feet.

"Chibiusa!"

Sheepishly, Small Lady climbed back to her feet. She brushed off her gown, straitening the pink ruffles and frills so that she looked at least somewhat respectable to her parents when she said, "I'm going with you!"

"No." A single, flat syllable spoken in perfect unison by both her parents. No. You're not going. Not again. You just got back.

"But Papa will need back-up!" The Princess argued. "He might need the help of Sailor Moon! And since you can't leave Silver Millennium, I'm the obvious choice! And besides…" this argument she wasn't so sure of. At best it was a long-shot, but she tried it anyway. "…Papa's the Prince of Earth, that means I'm half a Princess of Earth too! I should also be able to help protect it!"

The Queen and King exchanged a look.

"I can hold my own in a battle!" Insisted the Princess. She gazed pleadingly at her mother. In the end, it would be the Queen's decision. As the Princess and her daughter, Small Lady could defy her parents' wishes and try their patience until they were all gray-haired and withered. But as a Senshi, whatever he mother decided would have to be what she accepted. All Senshi were subject to the Queen's commands.

After a prolonged pause, Serenity said, "You will take Diana, my Sailor Senshi with you. You'll need support, so until you have a team of your own, you may use mine."

Endymion looked back at his wife. "Usa-ko?"

Serenity smiled. "After all, Sailor Moon never runs from a real fight. How can I hold her back?"

Small Lady smiled at her mother, offering a clumsy curtsy of gratitude. "Thank you, Mama! I mean, Queen Serenity! I won't let you down!"

The Princess dashed from the room to prepare.

The King waited until the sound of her footsteps disappeared down the corridor before asking his wife, "Are you sure that's a good idea? She has had a bit of a fixation on Earth and Saiyans ever since she met that boy."

At that, the Queen smiled, a true smile of amusement. "I'm just happy our Small Lady doesn't have an Electra Complex. And besides, we of all people, should know better than to get in the way of destined meetings. Or, are you jealous, Mamo-chan?"

"Jealous? No." Endymion shook his head. "Just concerned. "I will protect our daughter."

"As always." Nodded Queen Serenity, smiling more like Usagi in that moment. Laughing at some far off and long ago memory.

...


	5. Battles on Earth

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment. Same disclaimer applies for Sailor Moon and related characters.

Space Opera

Chapter Five: Battles on Earth

Something was off about this battle.

The Prince couldn't quite decide what yet, but something was off. It wasn't the enemy's formation. It was a defensive pattern, but that made sense given that they had fewer ship. It might have been the fact that there weren't as many Ice-jin ships present as was expected, but then, the standard practice within the Ascendancy was to use their saucer shaped capitol ships as nothing more than troop carriers to bring large number of grunt soldiers to a battle. They weren't equipped with any version of a ship-board weapons system and were mostly useless during the actual battle. The Prince understood the Kold's desire not to risk more of their ships than was necessary.

So then, what was off about this battle…?

Flicking his eyes momentarily to make sure his father's attention was on the battle taking place beyond the _Dominance_'s command bridge and not on him, the Prince casually lifted a hand. Seemingly to brush his bangs out of his face. Then, just as casually tapped his scouter to call Goten on the _Patriot_.

"This is Son." He replied in that curt tone of professional urgency that was drilled into both of them at the Imperial Academy. "Go ahead."

"Goten," The Prince whispered just loud enough for the audio-receptors in his scouter to detect, but not loud enough for his father to hear. They'd gotten in trouble before for 'chatting over trivialities' during battles. "Have a Tac officer run a scan on the Kolds' ships. When its done, feet the report directly to my scouter, don't go through the _Dominance_'s comm system."

"Something up?" The Captain asked.

"Not sure." Admitted the Prince. "Just a feeling. But there's no need to go worrying my father if its nothing."

"Right, right. I should get the info back to you in a bit." Goten's scouter switched off.

Suppressing a sigh, the Prince crossed his arms over his chest to wait, shifting his weight in impatience. It was bad enough that he was stuck here on the _Dominance_ -observing. Standing and doing nothing while Goten got to actually _participate_. But he didn't even get to _command_ anything. Not really. His father relayed everything to the Fleet Admiral, Nappa, aboard the _Admonitor_. His father and Nappa gave the commands, he just sat back and watched. As far as the King was concerned, the Prince was still just a pup and had neither the skill nor the experience to contribute anything of value to a battle. Either that or he just didn't like the idea of his teenaged son pointing out tactical advantages that he might have missed. Damn his pride.

If the Prince was going to do nothing, he might as well be on Earth right now.

…

Valese wasn't quite sure what she was expecting when she reached the place the saucer-like ships landed outside the city. She'd never seen a spaceship up close before.

Most of the larger ships parked in docking stations that orbited the planet and took shuttles or individual pods down to the planet. They didn't land randomly on the outskirts of major cities. But these ships looked different than the ones she'd seen in her textbooks or on the TV. Most ships within the Imperial Space Navy that were in operation today were based on designed by the Saiyan Queen, Bulma Briefs, the former heiress of the Capsule Corporation. As such, they weren't as clumsy looking at what Valese was now looking at.

Squeezing between a gap in the large rock thrown up by their landing, dirtying her dress with shale, she gazed at the large ships.

Where Imperial warships were supposed to be long and sleek, these were round and bulky looking. A generic disc shape with yellow bulbous protrusions placed regularly around its radius, claw-like landing gear that made the thing look very much like a crab, and one large off-center bubble-done on its top. Overall, Valese thought the alien ships looked very silly. They were nothing like the big mean-looking battleships she saw on TV. It was more like something out of a children's cartoon.

She wanted to creep closer, but couldn't squeeze the rest of the way through the rocks she had sandwiched herself between. So, she shimmied out of her little crevice, getting even more dirt and shale on her dress, turning the bright sunshine-yellow fabric a ruddy brownish-gray. Circling the shallow craters of kicked up dirt and rock, she picked her way through the rubble in search of an easier way down to the ships. They were new and strange to her and that made them interesting.

Climbing over a large rock, scraping her knees on its jagged surface, she got her first look at one of the aliens the ships must have belonged to.

Large and fat. With pink-colored skin and short -equally pink- spikes protruding from his balled head and forearms. Valese had never seen an alien like him before. Wearing armor that looked similar to the Saiyan uniforms of the Space Navy, but a slightly different design. Larger shoulders and darker colors than the Saiyan officers she'd seen on TV. She wondered what he was doing on Earth. Was he friendly? Why was he pink? Did he smell like bubblegum?

Before Valese even got a chance to ponder that last question, she was interrupted by a harsh voice behind her.

"Don't move! Turn around slowly!"

It took her a moment to puzzle through those two opposing commands. How could she turn around if she wasn't supposed to move? Or, maybe whoever was behind her wanted her to turn so slowly that it looked like she wasn't moving? How odd. These new aliens were funny.

As slowly as she possibly could while still actually moving, Valese turned around to face the alien behind her. She was surprised to find that he was different from the pink one she saw waiting by the ship. This one looked more human-like. Larger, with pointed ears and ashen skin. Blond hair plucked into a mohawk. That was unexpected. She had gotten so used to the idea that aliens all looked alike. After all, the Saiyans all had black hair and black eyes, rounded ears, and tails. Her mother would say it was racist of her, but they really did all look the same to Valese. But then, maybe that was small-minded of her. After all, humans were a very diverse race. WIth hair and eyes of the rainbow. Who was she to assume that the pink bubblegum-guy and this man weren't the same species.

Smiling politely, Valese tried to introduce herself. "Hello. I'm Valese. What's your name?"

"What are you doing here, woman?" Barked the alien.

Well, that was rude. Her mother always taught her that it was the polite thing to do to introduce yourself by name when meeting new people. Didn't they teach manners on this alien's home planet? Or, were their idea of manners different?

It didn't matter.

As her silence dragged on, the alien became impatient and extended his arm, palm out, fingers spread, towards her. She knew what that meant. Everyone who lived on an Imperial world knew what that posture meant -even someone as sheltered and unworldly as Valese. He meant to shoot her with his _ki_!

She didn't have a _ki_-sense, she knew some people could learn how to sense _ki_, but her parents would never let her learn it. But this close to someone who used _ki-_techniques, she could feel something. A slight tingling on her skin, a slight warming of her face as she stared at his palm… Not knowing what else to do, or what she could do for that matter, she did the only thing that occurred to her in that moment. She yelped like a kicked-puppy and rolled off the rock she was on. Hitting the dirt on all fours, getting even more dust on her clothing. She slid on the loose dirt, down the embankment until she found another rock to hide behind.

Maybe coming out here hadn't been such a good idea after all.

…

It was years since Gohan was in a real fight. In fact, since taking Videl as a mate, having Pan and just generally settling down, he didn't even train much anymore.

But he was beginning to feel the toll now.

At one point in his life, three opponents of their level would have been nothing for the original demi-Saiyan. But after a little over five years of inactivity, living a comfortable life with his family, he had become complacent and three low-medium level opponents were a bit of a challenge. He had grown used to the occasional and casual one-on-one spars with his father or Goten -when he was actually on-planet. The paradigm shift from one-on-one spar to battle royal death match was giving him trouble. Gohan hadn't had to fight more than one opponent at a time since he completed his four years of required military service and resigned his commission.

One landed his knee in Gohan's stomach, nearly making him toss-up his lunch, while a second elbowed him in the back. The third smacked him in the face with the Dragon Ball again. He went spinning to the side, wheeling through the air before tumbling in the tall grass. They didn't give him a chance to climb back to his feet, the one with the Dragon Ball rushing forward to land a kick in is kidney.

Gohan howled with the pain on the blow. His battle _ki_ raged inside him, wild and unfocused. Each of his enemies' attacked added to that wild churning power, like shaking a Coke bottle. His opponents didn't know it, but the more they thrashed him the closer they were bringing themselves to their own destruction.

That was the thing with demi-Saiyans. Their mingled human and Saiyan blood gave them a great threshold for power, a greater potential to reach unimagined heights of physical strength and depth of ki, but if their training was handled improperly, their great potential shifted from a gift to a liability. It turned to a berserker power. That was a lesson Gohan himself provided. Delaying his training until the age of four was the first mistake. It allowed the much more passive and gentle human side of his nature to assert dominance, it suppressed the natural Saiyan desire for violence and action. So, when training finally did begin, it was very difficult for him to progress beyond the basics of combat. His battle ki couldn't be released unless in the most desperate of situations, and then it was wild and turbulent, unfocused and sloppy, something of pure instinct rather than practiced conditioning and control.

Training with his father and serving the four years of service to the military that were required of all Imperial citizens of Saiyan decent eventually trained a great majority of the frenzyness out of him. During his military service, he could fight as a normal warrior. But after so much time spent in quiet complacency, it seemed he had regressed back to that original berserker nature.

Goten didn't have that problem. Neither him nor the Prince did.

But Gohan was the first. The original Saiyan-human hybrid, which in the Saiyan tongue was coined a '_hansaiya_'. As such, no one had any real clue as to what to make of him or even the idea of a demi-Saiyan. Hell! His father didn't even know that _he_ was a Saiyan until Uncle Raditz showed up one random summers day. Before then, a Saiyan-anything hybrid was unheard of. Both the Empire and the human race learned through trial and error. It was actually one of the reasons he became a scholar after resigning his commission with the Fleet. To study Saiyan-human hybrids on a neural-psychological level and perhaps design more effective training and education programs for them that took both halves of their dual nature into account and nurtured them equally.

One of the aliens grabbed a fist-full of his thick dark hair and dragged him to his feet.

Gohan grit his teeth against the pain and glared at his opponents. The raging swirling tumult of his _ki_ making his limbs shake slightly. They probably interpreted the shaking as fear, they didn't know it was a raging storm of power beating agains the cage that was his body. As far as they knew, they had the upper hand in this fight. -Which, at the moment, they kinda did.

Then his cell phone began to ring.

It was Videl's ringtone and for the first time, Gohan found himself wondering exactly what soldiers of the Ascendancy were doing on Earth and how many more of them there were out there? But most importantly, what were they doing? Were any of them near Mount Paozu?

"Oi, your pants are singing." The one holding him grunted.

"Kh, thank you. I noticed." Gohan managed through gritted teeth. He stretch out with his senses, feeling for any _ki_ that would be unusual to find on Earth. There were, indeed, far more battle _ki_s than there should have been. But it was hard to pin any of them down with his own _ki_ beating against his insides like a wild animal desperate for escape.

One of the others reached onto his pocket and pulled out the phone. Sure enough, Videl's name and picture was flashing over the touch screen. The phone's design probably wasn't familiar to the alien soldier, after all, not many people off Earth used cell phones, preferring scouters (or similar) instead. But the giant green button that said 'Answer Call' was easy enough to figure out. What Gohan couldn't figure out was how the guy managed to get it on speaker-phone.

"Gohan! Where the heck are you!?" Videl's voice shouted through the speaker, tense and breathless. In the background the sounds of another battle could be distinctly heard. The _fizzling_ charge of a _ki _ball followed by the _zing_ of its discharge and the blast of it impacting something solid. There was the sound of a heavy rain which must have been debris falling and she cured colorfully.

"Videl!" Gohan shouted at his phone as if doing so could suddenly will whatever was going on, on her end to be fine.

"I don't know what's going on." She continued breathlessly. "But I need you home! I can't keep Pan out of this and protect your mother at the same time!"

There was the sound of another blast of energy, more cursing from Videl and then a frightened little wail of "_Mama!_"

It was the cry of his daughter's voice that finally broke the leash on Gohan's power. His aura flowed outward, turning the air around him a jagged blue, his dark hair whipping about his face in the artificial wind his power created. All three soldiers were thrown back.

Gohan went for the one still holding his phone first. His instincts being drawn to the sounds of his mate and offspring in distress. It was a sloppy attack. But it was fast and it was powerful and the alien didn't have the time to regain his wits after being thrown, let alone dodge the on-coming demi-Saiyan. Gohan's blast hit him in the diaphragm, piercing his armor, ripping through what would have been his lungs had he been human (or Saiyan) and exiting out the back. A through and through. The hand holding the phone fell limp next to its lifeless body.

The other two had a bit more time to process. Neither was quite sure what happened. A few seconds ago they they the upper hand. Now, suddenly, one of them was dead.

Gohan reached down and picked up his cell phone, turning it off speaker but not ending the call. He turned to glare at the remaining two soldiers. "I don't actually like killing." He said, his swirling blue aura bending the grass in a circle around him. "So I suggest you leave now. There's somewhere else I have to be."

The one holding the Dragon Ball was the first to recover and respond. Tossing the ball at the demi-Saiyan's feet he stuttered a quick, "H-here!" and flew away. The other following quickly behind him. Gohan still didn't know what they wanted, but they were someone else's problem now.

Raising his phone to his ear, he shouted to be heard over the background noise. "Videl, I'm on my way! Just hang on a bit!"

Pausing only long enough to scoop up the Three Star Dragon Ball, Gohan shot off into the air on the straitest course home.

…

There were a lot of them. Raditz had to admit that maybe he and his men were a bit outnumbered.

Sure, the Ascendancy didn't provide very much training to their soldiers. On an individual level, they weren't really all that much of a threat. But there were far more of them then there were Saiyan warriors available, the Ascendancy troops out numbering them by perhaps four Ice-jin soldiers to every one Imperial warrior. Superior skill could only carry a fighting force so far. There was something to be said about superior number. Sometimes, there just wasn't anything a person could do against a swarm. (As the zombie-genre movies that Earth was so fond of often illustrated.)

Tapping his scouter with an impatience that his pride refused to admit might be bordering on desperation, he called the Governor's Palace's main comm technician to demand an update. "Have you contacted the Fleet yet!?"

The poor communications tech's answer was drowned out as Raditz was forced to bob and weave to dodge attacks from two separate opponents. Spinning around quickly to block a blow from a third, his wild mane of thick dark hair whipping after him and smacking one of the Ice-jin soldiers in the face.

"Arh! Did you just hit me with your hair!?"

Raditz ignored the enemy's comment. Instead taking his momentary distraction to land a blow that then him flying towards the city below. The Ascendancy soldier hit the ground, making a rather impressive crater in the asphalt street. Great. Property damage. That meant paperwork. Raditz hated paperwork! Still, with one attacker down and only two left on him, he was given enough of a deprive to return some attention to the comm tech on the other end of his scouter.

"Repeat that, soldier!" He barked.

"I said, not yet, sir!" The comm tech's voice came back hurried and a bit tense. "The _Admonitor_ is currently engaged in a battle and Admiral Nappa cannot be reached."

"Then call the _Dominance_!" Raditz snarled just as his two remaining attackers decided to resume their onslaught.

All around him, other warriors were in similar such predicaments. With more than one opponent to deal with, all attacking at once from different sides. It would be difficult for any one of them to come to another's aid.

One of Raditz's opponents swung outward with a kick aimed at his mid-section, but he grabbed the foot before the blow could land. Using his enemy's own momentum, Raditz twisted his body around and threw the alien soldier as hard as he could, roughly aiming for another of the Ascendancy troopers that was occupied with another of his Saiyan warriors. The two Ice-jin soldiers smacked into each other and fell several feet before regaining their flight. The other Saiyan gave Raditz a nod of thanks before both men turned their attention back to the fight at hand.

"Sir!" The comm tech was back in his ear. "King Vegeta says he is in no mood to listen to, uh… 'the pathetic grovelings of an incompetent planetary governor'. …Sir. His words, not mine."

Raditz bit the inside of his cheek to keep from saying something he would definitely regret. Vegeta always had been a bit of a ass, even before he became King. Instead, he ordered, "Keep trying them. Try every damn ship in the Fleet if you have to! Just get up some damn support down here!"

No sooner were those words out of his mouth than, like a bold from heaven, a most unconventional 'weapon' came shooting through the mid-day sky to impale one of Raditz's attacker's squarely in the throat. The Saiyan stared at it for a moment, unsure of what he was actually seeing. Perhaps his eyes were playing tricks on him or he'd taken to many blows to the head and his brain just wasn't processing right.

A bright red, long stemmed rose stuck out of the Ascendancy soldier's neck. Just above the collar of his ill-fitting armor.

The alien soldier, stunned by the attack, but not dead, clawed at his neck, trying to pull the rose out, but its thorns kept it stuck. In the end, all the man could do was turn in the direction the projectile came from. They both did. Raditz following the rose's trajectory, same as the Ice-jin soldier did. There, they saw an equally unconventionally dressed… 'warrior' was not the right word. 'Prom King' might have fit better. Or maybe 'Disco Vampire'.

Dressed in an all back tuxedo, white cravat, a red and gold cross-brooch, black cape with red inside, a top hat and a white mask. He stood perched on a nearby rooftop, his cape flowing in the breeze. He extended one arm dramatically, a second rose poised between his fingertips. "Evil may try and tarnish this beautiful summer's day." He said. "But I, Tuxedo Mask, protector of all that is green and good on this Earth will not allow it!"

And the second rose went flying through the air, this time striking the enemy soldier in the forehead. He hung in the air for a moment to two longer before doing a rather accurate impression of a brick, and plummeting down to the street below, knocking out a streetlight with his fall. Great. More property damage. More paperwork.

But Raditz didn't have time to worry over that at the moment. He was freed of his opponents, but there were others still fighting. He cast a quick glance back at the Prom-King-Disco-Vampire-Masked-Tuxedo guy just to make sure he wasn't a new enemy come to take advantage of the Ascendancy attack, or maybe one of the Ascendancy's specialized troops. The self-proclaimed 'Tuxedo Mask' didn't appear to be able to fly, he was using mostly roses as projectile weapons and an off fire attack which sounded suspiciously like '_Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber_!' but Raditz didn't rely care much to scrutinize. Not now anyway. For the moment, he appeared to be on their said. He could debrief, or interrogate the newcomer at his own discretion later.

He moved to aid the next closest warrior to himself, changing a three on one fight to a three on two fighting.

"Who's the Metro that just showed up?" The warrior asked when there was enough of a lull in the blows to get a word in.

"No idea." Raditz admitted. "But lets roll with it for now. He's helping. We can kill him later if we need to."

The other soldier nodded and returned his full attention to the fight, his priorities set. Defend Earth and the Empire's territory first. Worry about mysterious metrosexual newcomer later.

Raditz send a short message to that effect over a broad-band scouter frequency just to give the rest of his warriors a heads up and hopefully keep the Disco Vampire from distracting them. For the moment he's a Friendly. Just ignore him until this is dealt with. He's not getting in our way.

"_Sparkling Wide Pressure_!" Then another soldier appeared.

This time Raditz recognized the type immediately. There was really no way _not_ to recognize a Sailor Senshi of the Moon Kingdom. After all, what other fighting force in the known universe wore pleated mini-skirts and heeled boots to a fight? No other.

In a green and white uniform. She was taller than he expected. Not that he had much experience with Senshi to begin with, but he always thought they were petite little things who fought with magic, and glitter, and light. But this one was tall, slender but athletic looking. Her brown hair pulled up into a high pony-tail, showing off pink rose earrings. As he studied her, a short golden antenna seemed to extend from her tiara and collect energy from the air…

"_Supreme Thunder_!"

…and then was discharged in a large lightning storm that took out a good number of enemy soldiers. Raditz stared at her in admiration. He had no idea Sailor Senshi had that kind of power. No wonder the King was so wary of them. And he couldn't even sense any _ki _from the attack. Not that his _ki_-sense was any where near as keen as him brother's or his nephews'. But his scouter didn't pick anything up either. Did Senshi not use _ki_? If so, then what was that attack?

He didn't realize he was staring until she shouted in his general direction. "Hey, Hedgehog, keep your head in the game!"

"H-Hedgehog!?" Raditz repeated at a loss as to how to react to the nickname.

At his side, another Saiyan failed to suppress a snort. Raditz recognized him as one who'd been working in the Governor's Palace for about eight years now and had a six-year-old _hansaiya_ son. "Well, with that hair, you do kinda look like Sonic. Sir."

"Thank you, Corporal, if I wanted your opinion I would have asked of it!"

The other Saiyan shrugged and turned his attention back to the battle at hand. The tables were turned now. The numbers ratio was still in the Ascendancy's favor. But with the addition of the Sailor Senshi and the Disco-Vampire-Prom-King, they were fighting with improved odds.

…

The first thing Gohan saw when he arrived at Mount Paozu was five more soldiers in mismatched armor -more Ascendancy troops.

Then he saw the three women attempting to defend themselves from them. His mother, on the ground with one of her medium sew pots over her head like a helmet, a broom in her hands being wielded as if it were a naginata. Son Chichi was a formidable woman, a regular 'tiger mother', but against alien soldiers trained in _ki_ techniques, she was like a paper tiger standing against an on-coming storm. Videl was doing a much better job of holding them off by simple grace of the fact that she could fly and face their attackers on equal footing. But beyond the flight technique, Gohan had never taught her how to use her _ki_ in a fight, he couldn't attack with her energy. But her ability to fight was happened by the fact that Videl was also trying to keep her overconfident and eager to help daughter.

The little five-year-old _hansaiya_ girl wanted to fight too. But while she was strong, she was still just toddler and no match for grown soldiers.

Gohan dove downwards, hist fist going through the shoulder of the one nearest his mate and daughter and coming out just below the man's collarbone. The alien soldier gave a startled cry, his eyes suddenly wide with sock and pain. Gohan withdrew his hand, spinning the man around to face him.

Videl, one arm wrapped around her daughter, covered Pan's eyes with her free hand just in time before her husband finished the kill. The little girl might be part Saiyan and perhaps the sight of death might not be as scaring to her as it might be for a normal human child. But Videl was still skeptical of that fact. Besides, the sight of death might not be scaring for a five-year-old _hansaiya_, but the image of _her father_ killing another person definitely would be. Videl wasn't as adamant about sheltering her children as Chichi had been, but she did draw the line on certain things.

"Papa!" The little girl squirmed out of her mother's grip and floated over to her father, latching onto the man's arm. "Papa, Mama won't let me help!"

With his other hand, Gohan patted the little girl on the head, stroking her hair affectionately while his senses checked to make sure she was, in fact, okay. His eyes, however, were focused on the other four Ascendancy soldiers.

They gapped at their dead comrade. Their eyes flicking from the dead body at Gohan's feet to Gohan himself and back again. They were considering their options. Stay and fight the Saiyan and possibly end-up same as their friend, or else retreat and face whatever punishment the Ice-jin would visit upon them for failing whatever mission they were given. Had the situation been slightly different and they weren't threatening his family, Gohan might have felt sorry for the alien soldiers. But they threatened his mother, his mate, and his daughter. That meant, if they didn't turn rabbit and run in the next five seconds, he was going to kill them all, and he wasn't going to think twice about it. Gohan didn't actually like killing, but he did draw the line somewhere.

Then, the aliens came to a decision. There were four of them and only one of him. They had the better odd.

Two of them rushed him.

Gohan threw his daughter back towards Videl, whom caught her awkwardly like a football with limbs, before settling the girl into a more conventional hold. The little _hansaiya_ girl squirmed in her mother's arms, but Videl held her firmly, refusing to let her join the fight and get injured or get in her father's way.

"Papa!" Pan whined.

All four of them were on him now. Gohan blocking blows on all sides. HIs _ki_, a while jagged, blue aura around him shifted and fluctuated every time they connected. Without looking back at his family, he called, "Pan, Videl, you remember where I keep my old scouter!" Without waiting for a response he continued, "go get it and call my Uncle Raditz at the Governor's Palace. He-"

If he was going to say more, he didn't get to. Gohan was cut off suddenly by a sharp blow to his stomach by one opponent, followed quickly by a kick to the head by another.

He spit out a mouth full of blood and one back molar tooth, and glared at the alien soldiers. His jagged blue _ki_ raging around him. Raising his hands over his head, Gohan gathered his energy, collecting it for a _Masenko_ wave. The attack incinerated one Ascendancy soldier, scorching two of the others. Then the fight turned from hand-to-hand combat to _ki _combat. The three remaining enemies climbed higher in the air, seeking to place a little bit of distance between themselves and the demi-Saiyan while they charged up attacked of their own.

Gohan didn't give them that time.

Shooting into the air after them, he picked off another soldier with a second _Masenko_. Then dodged an energy wave from one of the other two. They drifted closer to one another for a combined energy attack against him. That was when Gohan saw his opening. While they were charging their combined attacked, synchronizing their _ki_ to each other, they were also floating still and close enough to one another for one energy blast from Gohan to take them both out.

He brought his hands together at his side, feeling the power flow down his arms and collet in his palms. It was an old and well loved technique in his family. "_Ka…_"

If the two remaining Ascendancy soldiers knew they were in danger, they didn't act on it.

"_Me…_"

But then again, their own attack was also growing in intensity.

"_Ha…_"

The ki collecting in Gohan's hands was now a visible thing. A swirling blue light, radiating through his fingers.

"_Me…_"

The enemies' attack was also glowing with their combined power. They were almost well matched. The both of them against the one demi-Saiyan. In the end, the victory would depend on who got their shot off first. It was an old-fashioned Western stand-off. At high-noon and everything.

"_Ha!_"

And Gohan won.

The last two Ascendancy soldiers being incinerated by the attack. Dissolved into nothingness. Not even enough of them to fall back to the ground. The feeling of their_ ki_, they very life energy fading into nothingness and lost to the wind. Gohan hated killing. It was one of the reasons he resigned his commission from the Fleet almost the moment he was allowed to. But sometimes, it was necessary. Seeing Videl and Pan unharmed when he landed confirmed this for him better than anything else could have.

"Your uncle says they're in Satan City, too." Videl reported the moment he landed. Holding his scouter to her ear with one hand because it didn't fit quite right on her. "Apparently, they're attacking all over the planet. He tried calling the Fleet, but they're unavailable."

"Give it to me." He held out his hand for the scouter which she was more than happy to pass to him. If Raditz tried calling the Fleet back to Earth then that meant that they just didn't have the manpower available to repel an Ice-jin attack on their own. And it the Fleet wasn't responding it could mean one of two things, either they were still in hyperspace and unreachable, or else Vegeta woke-up on the dick side of the bed this morning and was ignoring Raditz on principle. So, Gohan decided to call someone who _would_ listen.

…

Goten was still compiling the date Trunks asked for when he got another call on his scouter.

The ID code was an older one, that usually equated to an officer of rank. But the officer stamp attached to the number was that of a low-rank, so he ignored the call for the moment. Trunks' orders were a higher priority.

The main command ship of the Ice-jin fleet appeared to be the _Misericorde_, which was the of Salza, Cooler's right hand. Other command ships present were the _Karabela_, belonging to Dore, and the _Shamshir_ which belonged to Neiz. Both were also Cooler's men. In fact, all the ships the tactical officer had identified thus far seemed to belong to Cooler's force. None of Freeza's or King Kold's troops seemed to be represented in the battle. That was odd.

Maybe Trunk's feeling was right. There _was_ something off about this fight.

Especially when Goten remembered that the ship that attacked the Bowmen Spacedock, the _Cutlass_, was identified as being one of Freeza's ships. Why would Freeza provoke the Empire but then not be present when the Empire struck back? It didn't make any sense.

His scouter buzzed again with another call. That same old ID with the low-rank stamp. Goten glared at it in annoyance. He was a Captain, just four ranks below Admiral, and he was Captain of the Prince's flagship. What low-ranked officer would have the gall to bother him with a strait scouter-to-scouter call in the middle of a battle? Goten could not think of a single officer in the Fleet. He continued to ignore the caller.

The Ascendancy's formations didn't seem right either. They had three command ships present with a handful of troop-carriers. The Imperial Fleet outnumbered them in terms of ships, but the Ice-jin crammed their ships and carriers with grunt soldiers. Most of them were canon fodder, but in terms of warm bodies, the Ascendancy still outnumbered the Empire. A defensive formation didn't make any sense for them. It was almost like they were trying to prolong this fight. But why? The Ice-jin were notorious sadists that delighted in pain, and prolonged fights did tend to be a tad painful. But it was the Saiyan race, not the Ice-jin race that reveled in a good fight. Prolonging this battle was out of character for them.

That same low-rank officer called a third time.

Whoever it was, they were damn persistent. Maybe they noticed the same thing he and Trunks did. Something was off about this battle and neither Admiral Nappa nor King Vegeta noticed. Some brilliant young Petty Officer, fresh out of the Imperial Academy and assigned to the tactical division. But then, why the old ID? Okay. Now Goten was a bit curious. He tapped his scouter to answer he call.

"This is Son." He said in the curt business tone they drilled into him in the Academy. "You are interrupting a senior officer in the middle of an Imperial strike, soldier. You-"

"Goten, shut-up for a sec and listen!" Gohan's voice shouted over the channel.

"N-niisan?" The Captain stuttered. "I'm kinda in the middle of something important here. What the hell!?"

"They're back." Gohan snapped. "The Ascendancy send more soldiers back to Earth. There're to many of them for Uncle Raditz and his troops to fight off. We could sure use a capital ship or two to swoop in cavalry-style."

Suddenly, everything clicked. The low presentation among the Ice-jin forces. The defensive formations. The general feeling that this battle was being prolonged…

It was a distraction!

While the main Imperial Fleet was being kept busy out here in the middle of nowhere, the rest of the Kold family's forces were closing in on their real target. The _Earth_! He needed to call the King and the Admiral. He needed to call them right _now_! "Gohan, I'll call you back!" He ended the transmission with his big brother without waiting for response. "Comm! Open a conference channel with both the _Dominance_ and the _Admonitor_!"

While the comm officer hurried to follow out his Captain's command, Goten tapped his scouter to call Trunks directly. Just in case Nappa and the King decided they didn't want to hear from the Prince's 'idiot friend' today. He started talking the moment the line connected, not giving Trunks the chance to speak. "Its a diversion!" He said, speaking quickly. "The battle's just a diversion. They're back on Earth!"

…

Her knees shook in the loose dirt as Valese crouched between two rocks and hoped the unfriendly aliens wouldn't find her. In hindsight, this was a bad idea. But how was she supposed to know that they were bad guys? Mommy and Daddy usually kept her insulated from those kinds of things. What was she gonna now?

Valese was well and good trapped now. She couldn't leave her hiding place for fear of being seen. How was she going to get home? Her parents must be so worried about her. Oh, she was gonna be in so much trouble when she got home!

"Come out, come out, wherever you are…!"

Since her discovery by the first alien bad guy, more of them joined the search for her. Even the big pink one was interested in finding her -though, he didn't actually participate, he just ordered more aliens to the search. The big bubblegum one must be the bad guys' boss. It was just a matter of time until her hiding place was discovered. What would they do to her when they discovered her? Alien probes? Dissections? Abduct her and take her away from Earth? The possibilities ran wild through her mind.

"Looking for someone?" A different voice shouted now.

Valese raise her head just enough over her hiding place to see another girl, around her own age, wearing a pink and white sailor suit uniform. It didn't belong to any school she recognized. And the skirt was a little to short to be considered acceptable for a public high school, the top to form-fitting. It showed off her curves, the large pink bow drawing attention to the swell of her breasts. No school would allow a uniform like that.

"Well, you've found Sailor Moon!" She continued. "I fight for Love and Justice, and in the name of the Moon, I will punish you!"

Oh! So she was a superhero! Like the Great Saiyaman, but without a mask. What luck! Here she was, trapped by alien bad guys and a real life superhero comes to her rescue! It was just like in the cartoons! Valese couldn't believe it. She couldn't wait to get home and tell Mommy and Daddy all about it!

Sailor Moon reached for her tiara, pulling the golden circlet off her head, she turned the elegant crown into a spinning disk of light and threw it at the nearest bad guy. Valese's view was partially blocked by her own hiding place, so she didn't see exactly what happened, but she heard the bad guy drop close to her hiding place. He did not move from where he fell.

"Y-you… what are you!?" Another of the bad guys asked.

She was a superhero. Duh! Didn't they have cartoons where these guys came from?

"I'm the girl who's gonna kick you off this planet!" Sailor Moon announced, pulling out a short pink stick with a yellow moon crescent on the end.

Whatever she was going to do with the wand, however, Valese didn't get to see, because one of the bad guys shot at her with an energy blast. Now that was something that Valese knew about. Everyone who lived on a Saiyan occupied world knew about _ki_.

Sailor Moon rolled down the embankment, getting her pretty clean sailor suit covered in just as much dust and dirt as Valese's own. She recovered quickly, climbing to her knees, crimson eyes flashing, gazing up at the bad guys. Valese couldn't see the aliens anymore from her vantage point, but she knew that since their first _ki_ attack failed, they would try again. Sliding out of her hiding place, Valese grabbed the superheroine around the mid-section and sent them both rolling farther down the slope and slightly to the side just in time to avoid the follow-up blast.

The two women blinked at one another.

"Who are you?" Asked Sailor Moon.

Now wasn't exactly the best of situations for introductions. But her mother did always teach her that it was the polite thing to do when meeting new people. So, she said, "Hello. I'm Valese." She might have said more she felt that tingling feeling on her skin again, the same feeling she got right before the first bad guy tried to shoot her with his _ki_ and assumed another blast was coming. So, instead, she said, "Look out!"

Both woman jumped out of the way, again, just in the nick of time.

"Gawd! This is just like being on the _Cutlass_ all over again." Sailor Moon grumbled.

Valese didn't know what that meant and there wasn't exactly time to ask. She grabbed Sailor Moon's wrist and dragged her to another outcropping of rocks to hide in.

Crouching down, Sailor Moon asked, "Okay, Valese, are you a dual-lineage Saiyan? Can you fight like them? 'Cause I could really use he help."

"Oh, no!" Valese was quick to assure her. "Fighting's _much_ to dangerous. My parents would never allow it. I'm just a normal human."

"Great." Muttered the superheroine. Then she called, "Hey, Diana, are you still alive?"

Diana? Valese didn't see anyone else from her hiding place. So, there was another hero here with her. Were they a superhero team? Like Saiyaman and Saiyagirl? How cool!

A small gray cat came trotting up to their cover location. "Here, Small Lady."

It talked!

"Diana, I need you to stay here and look after Valese while I take care of these guys."

The cat -Diana- looked from Sailor Moon to Valese and back again. "Will do!"

Sailor Moon nodded then jumped back into the fray. Using her Tiara again, she took out two more bad guys. Then the large pink guy appeared. He didn't say anything. Just surveyed the scene before him for a moment before sucking in a breath of air and releasing, not an exhaled breath, but a large and powerful wave of _ki_.

"Look out!" Valese shouted, but Sailor Moon was already jumping out of the way. "Oh… I wanna help too!"

The little cat blinked at her for a moment, regarding her critically as if making a decision. Then her magenta eyes narrated, whatever conclusion she'd drawn, it was a firm decision. Jumping into the air, the small cat did a backflip and what looked like a very pretty but completely unassuming pen appeared out of nowhere. It landed in Valese's lap. She lifted it to her eyes, examining it for a moment. It was heavier than a normal pen with sort of open-circle hook with a cross underneath on the top. It was the kind of pretty pen any girl might use in school.

"Use that." Said the cat.

"Use it?" Valese asked. Use it for what? Now wasn't exactly the time to write an essay. Besides, she didn't have any paper. Was she supposed to write on herself? Ot the rocks? Or the cat?

"Just hold it up." The cat told her. "The words will come to you?"

So… she was supposed to write in the air? That made even less sense. But, it wasn't like she had anything better to do at the moment. Maybe the pen was like one of those Power Coins like from Power Rangers. Oh! That was an idea! Valese trust her fist holding the pen into the air and shouted, "_Its Morphin' Time_!"

Nothing happened.

"Gah! Its not working!" Valese looked at the pen in her hands as if her entire world view was suddenly shattered.

"Of course not!" The cat shook her head. "You have to say something like 'Venus Crystal Power Make-up'. Only, not 'Venus', obviously because we already have a Sailor Venus. But try another planet, or a star, or something like that."

Valese thought for a moment. She didn't know much about astronomy. She knew the eight planets in Earth's solar system, and of course, Vegeta-sei the Imperial Capitol. But not much beyond that. But wait… wasn't 'Venus' also the name of a goddess? Yeah, it was! Venus, goddess of Love and Beauty in Roman mythology. She knew all about mythology. She was a big fan of Ceres. Hey, that was an idea! Try Ceres! Wasn't there also an astronomical something named after Ceres too? It was worth a try.

Once again holding the pen high in the air, Valese called out, "Ceres Crystal Power… _Make-up_!"

And her life was irrevocably changed forever.

…


	6. Assisted Victory

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment. Same disclaimer applies for Sailor Moon and related characters.

Space Opera

Chapter Six: Assisted Victory

"They've got us good this time." Nappa said over the conference comm. His face drawn into a tight scow as he divided his attention between his King and the tactical display. "There's no way we can move the rest of the Fleet fast enough to make it to Earth in time to do anything but bury our dead."

On the other half of the conference screen, the Prince saw Goten bite the inside of his cheek. Of the four of them, he was the only one who had family currently on Earth. The Prince was glad his mother and little sister were safe on Vegeta-sei, but Goten's mother, his brother, sister-in-law, and niece were now under Ice-jin attack and had no support. Nappa's comment about burying their dead did nothing to sooth his anxiety. But maybe the Prince could.

"Not the whole Fleet." He agreed. "But maybe a few ships. If we bypass the DC line on some of the newer model capitol ships and pump the dhylearium directly into the drive cylinders without it haven to pass through so many meters of hoses, filter-tanks and mixers. We could pump pure dhylearium directly into the hyperdrive without having to dilute it with H2NO. That would boost their speed as high as point six past light speed. Might even get it as high as point eight if I get creative."

On the conference screen, Nappa was giving him a look of total and complete incomprehension and slight awe. He probably didn't understand a word that had just come out of the Prince's mouth. But on the other half of the split screen, Goten looked thoughtful, even hopeful. He didn't understand the intricate workings of spaceship mechanics to the point that the Prince did -in fact, when they were younger he used to think space travel was magic- but he knew about the _Patriot_, which was one of you 'newer model' capitol ships the Prince meant. He just hopped Goten had the sense not to ask what the side effects of _no_t diluting the dhylearium with a hydrogen-nitrogen-oxygen solution were. At least, not with the King standing right next to him.

"Over my dead body, are you getting anywhere near my ships' engines!" The King growled, actually turning to face his son, one hand balled into a fist in an unspoken threat. "Not after what you did to the _Executor_!"

Ah, yes… the _Executor_. The now retired -and for good reason- flagship of the King. That had been a fun weekend.

"Fine then. Send me back over to the _Patriot_." The Prince said, as if this were the most obvious and logical compromise. "It'll work out better that way anyway, since I already stripped its nitro-feed ages ago anyway, I wouldn't have to dig through eighty meters of superfluous cables and hoses to get to the DC line. I could just hook the dhylearium feed directly to the drive cylinders and pump it strait into the hyperdrive. It would take way less time than if I tried doing the exact same thing to the _Dominance_ or _Admonitor_."

He could tell at that Nappa was long gone as far as understanding what he was talking about and Goten was close to giving up as well. It was just Trunks and his crazy mechanics techno-babble now. But his father glared at him skeptically -and ever so slightly horrified at what the _Patriot_'s engines must already look like. The King bit the inside of his cheek, trying not to mutter some rather undignified Saiyago curses under his breath. The Prince smiled. He'd won, his father just didn't know it yet.

"It would take longer for me to explain to the _Patriot_'s engineering crew than it would for me to just jump in a pod and hop on over there." The Prince pointed out, sealing his victory.

The King snarled something incomprehensible under his breath and growled, "Fine then. Be quick about it!" Then, to the two on the conference screen, "Captain Son, you will return to Earth and deal with the Ascendancy presence there. Admiral Nappa, you and the Fleet shall remain here and keep the rest of the Kold forces occupied so that they don't realize we're onto their scheme. Understood?"

"Sir!" Both Goten and Nappa choired in near perfect unison.

…

With the help of the Sailor Senshi in green and the masked man in the tuxedo, Raditz and his forces were able to repel all the Ascendancy soldiers dispatched to the Governor's Palace. Tapping his scouter, he pulled up a 2D map of the Earth to scan for other targets or population centers they might be targeting. The big cities, and important Imperial buildings. With the emendate threat to his own location dealt with, he diverted a portion of his troops to the next front.

Casting a contemplative glance at the Senshi and the Tuxedo, he decided to take them along. After all, they were pretty useful thus far. "Hey, Pony-tail!" He shouted at the Senshi in green. "Can you or the Disco Vampire over there fly?"

The Senshi paused in what might have been another strange lighting attack with no_ ki_, or perhaps just an ordinary punch. Hm. So she could fight hand-to-hand as well as with strange magic. That was interesting. She looked up at him in confusion, "P-pony-tail!?"

Ha! Got her back for that 'Hedgehog' comment. See how you like being given a random and unflattering nickname in front of your peers! "Its a 'yes', or 'no' question, Pony-tail. Can you or can you not fly?"

The Senshi glared at him, her dark forest-green eyes flashing in irritation -as if almost lit by the same lightning energy she had just been throwing around. "No." She answered finally. "We can't fly."

"Alright then." Now was that really so hard? Raditz floated down to the rooftop she currently perched on, wrapped one strong arm around her dainty waist and lifted them both up into the air. Tapping his scouter with his free had, he muttered an order to his men to likewise pick up the Prom King and head over to the next hot zone of Ascendancy activity.

"_What are you doing!? Put me down!_" The Senshi struggled in his hold, kicking her legs and thrashing her arms. For a moment, Radtiz wondered if she might use one of her magical techniques on him. But he dismissed the idea quickly. If she actually did do that, he would drop her and she would most likely fall to her death -or at least permanent paralasis. But that didn't stop her elbow from colliding painfully with the side of his throat.

Raditz growled. "Carful, Pony-tail, or you might end-up street pizza."

She stopped struggling long enough to blink at him, startled, the looked down at the city rushing by below them. She considered her options. "Where are you taking me?"

"To the next fight." He answered as if this should have been the obvious answer. "You and the masked Tuexdo guy are here to help, are you not?"

"We will protect the Earth." She answered.

Having held the position of Governor of the Earth for some time now, Raditz became proficient at speaking and understanding the language of politics -to a certain degree. The Lunarians were here to protect the planet, that did not mean they actually came to help the Saiyans that called Earth 'home', never mind the Empire that claimed ownership of the Earth. They were simply concerned with the real estate -and probably the human life that lived here, sense they were such 'love and light' hippies.

It did make tactical sense. The Earth was the Moon Kingdom's closest neighbor, it was the only prudent thing to do, to safeguard their boarders. Regardless of what the Lunarians might think of the Empire, the Saiyans were the devils they knew, the Ice-jin were not as familiar to them. But in the twenty or so years that the Earth had been under Imperial control, the Saiyans had never bothered the Moon and the Moon Kingdom left the Empire pretty much completely alone. In order to protect their own kingdom, they wanted to maintain the unspoken treaty they had with the Empire rather than wonder if they were the next nation on the Ascendancy's laundry list.

Regardless of their motives, for the moment, the Lunarians were here to help. And with the Fleet on the other side of the Northern Galaxy, Raditz was glad for the help. Let those above him sort out the messy political details later.

"Well, Pony-tail, for now, that puts us on the same side." He told her. "So, for now, please shut-up and stop struggling."

To his great surprise and relief, she did. Her kicking and flailing stopped. She glared at him reproachfully, perhaps incensed by his order to shut-up. but she maneuvered her body flush against his anyway, cutting down their wind resistance and wrapped both arms around his shudders. "For now, then." She agreed. "Its Jupiter, by the way. My name. Sailor Jupiter. Not 'Pony-tail'."

"Jupiter, huh." He nodded, acknowledging her as a fellow warrior. "I'm Raditz. Second Class, Third Degree. Not 'Hedgehog'."

…

Like on the _Cutlass_, Small Lady was quickly reminded that when going up against bad guys that could use _ki_-techniques, she could do little more than dodge and run.

Other Senshi like Mars and Jupiter had more proactive, aggressive attacks. Things that did real physical damage while also not taking an absurd amount of time to spin, twirl and dance to launch. Heck! Even Venus and Mercury had damaging attacks that they could get off quickly. But Sailor Moon? She had was her Tiara and the 'Sailor Moon Kick'. Which wasn't really an actual Senshi move, it was just a bit of hand-to-hand she learned from Mako, and even then, Mako had been teaching her more as exercise rather than as preparation for a real fist-fight. Senshi didn't fist fight.

Her Tiara was about the only useful weapon she had on hand. The Moon Stick took to long. By the time she was done with all of the necessary posing, and twirling, the pink fatty with the spikes would have already blasted her to ashes before she even got out the word 'Moon', never mind 'Healing Escalation'. Where was a self-centered and egotistical purple Prince when you needed one? Small Lady may not like the guy. She might think he was a spoiled, obnoxious, rude, inconsiderate, mean-spirited, _scoundrel_! But he did provide her with a very necessary distraction back on the _Cutlass_. If it hadn't been for his sudden appearance and intervention, she never would have been able to use her Moon Healing Escalation on Cui.

So, fine, okay. Maybe Prince Vegeta XV wasn't all _that_ bad. He had his uses. _One_ particular and specific use she had for him right now, and he wasn't here. Useless purple monkey!

Small Lady went rolling in the dirt to avoid yet another ball of _ki_ thrown at her. At least these Ascendancy troops had terrible aim. That at least, was one thing in her favor. But then again, when you could blow up a building just by pointing at it, really, how accurate did one have to be? At least pointing at what they were shooting at made reading their movements obvious and gave Small Lady the forewarning she needed to move. But she was getting tired. Unlike her foes, she didn't have a well of fighting aura -or whatever it was- to draw more energy and stamina from. She was slowly being worn down, her reactions getting slower, her leaps, jumps, and rolls getting shorter.

And then, like the sounding of the cavalry, Small Lady heard an unfamiliar female voice shout the most welcome of words…

"Ceres Crystal Power… _Make-up_!"

She didn't turn to see it. She knew what a Sailor Transformation looked like. Her attention, instead, remained focused on her enemies. Her enemies who were now looking at the new Senshi that had just awakened in their midst. The distraction wouldn't last long enough for her to use the Moon Stick to launch an Escalation. But it was long enough for her to lob her Tiara at the nearest Ascendency soldier. He crumpled to the ground after the spinning gold crown struck him in the head. Not dead. Just unconscious. One down, at least.

"I'm Sailor Ceres!" Announced the new Senshi, climbing up to a pile of displaced rock and debris. Clad in a pink and white Sailor suit, a shade of pink a bit darker than Sailor Moon's, with indigo bows over her chest and lower back. A yellow ribbon in her hair. She struck a pose. One hip thrust out, her hand resting delicately upon it, her other hand pointed reprimandingly at the bad guys. "And in the name of Ceres, Goddess of Marriage and Fertility, your nefarious deeds will be put to a _stop_!"

Not bad for her first monologue ever. Small Lady had to admit. It was a little rough around the edges, there was definite room for improvement. But overall, for a Senshi that had only _just_ awakened, not bad. But that wasn't important at the moment. What mattered was, what could Sailor Ceres _do_?

"Now, Sailor Ceres!" Shouted Small Lady. "Do your move!"

Her level one move. Each Sailor Senshi's moves were different. Unique to each Senshi's planet or star. Mercury was water and intelligence. Mars was fire and passion. Jupiter was thunder and courage. Venus, love and beauty. And Sailor Moon… light and purity. So, what was Ceres? What did she say? 'Marriage and fertility'? Okay… so, love and plants? Random.

"Uh, my move?" Sailor Ceres looked from Small Lady to Diana in confusion.

Small Lady had to rush and jump to pull her out of the way of an enemy ki wave. Grabbing the newly awakened Senshi about the mid-section and hurtling them both into the dirt. She rolled them a couple more feet for good measure. Betting Sailor Ceres' clean, new Sailor suit covered in dust and dirt as she did so.

"Your move!" She repeated when they stopped moving. "The words will come to you. Just think of how much you want to stop the bad guys and wish you had a way to do it! Or if not a way to do it, then just something that would help. Even something as passive as a Bubble Spray would be helpful right now!"

Sailor Ceres just looked at her blankly for a moment. She had no idea what a Bubble Spray was. But Sailor Moon did say _anything_. Just think of Ceres and the words would come to her. So, Valese thought of the Goddess Ceres. Goddess of marriage and fertility… A phrase was forming in her mind. She didn't know what it meant or what it would do, but as Sailor Moon said, anything would help.

Climbing to her feet, Valese waved her arms in a wide arch and shouted, "_Petal Spindrift_!"

And a cascade of yellow rose petals appeared from out of nowhere. As if guided by her arms, waving in long elegant strokes, the petals danced and spun through the air catching the eyes, drawing attention and just basically distracting the enemy. So, it was a diversionary move. A passive technique. But then, a diversion was exactly what Small Lady had needed. Now it was her turn.

Raising the Moon Stick, Small Lady began the poses of her own finishing attack. "Moon… Healing… _Escalation_!"

A good portion of the Ascendancy force was enveloped by the surging spiral of shinning, glittery light that erupted from the crescent tip of her wand. Their bodies spamming as they were all cleansed of whatever negative energy they had. Leaving them all cleansed and pure, to the accompanying choir of, "_Refresh_!"

…A good portion of the their troops. But by no means all of them. And it looked like the fat pink guy -the ring leader- was not among those cleansed. The boss was still in play, and now they had caught on to Sailor Ceres' petal diversion. It was no longer working and wasn't likely to work a second time. Not with these same guys. Definitely not in this same fight! What they needed now was a second cavalry. Yeah. Great. Like _that_ was ever coming. Her mother said she'd send her Senshi to give her support, but where exactly were they? Getting ice-cream or goofing off at the arcade?

Once again Small Lady's mind flashed to the Saiyan Prince. He fought with the same _ki_ abilities as these bad guys. She needed someone like him for her cavalry. In spite of her personal feelings towards the man, she wished he were here right now. At least then this fight would be somewhat even.

No sooner had that thought flashed through her mind, however, than a shot of _ki_ did come sailing out of the sky, striking one of the Ascendancy troops through the chest, killing him dead.

Small Lady turned in the direction the blast had come, searching for lavender hair flowing in the breeze or the shine of sunlight on the blade of a sword. Instead, what she saw was sunglasses and a green tunic.

A man, she assumed he was a Saiyan, but he had no tail, hovered in the air above them. Wearing the white boots and white gloves common to Imperial uniforms, but that was about the only thing about him that might mark him as a Saiyan warrior. Beneath the bright green tunic Small Lady already noted, he wore a black body suit, more reminiscent of tights rather than the jumpsuits Imperial troops wore under their armor. Over his shoulders was a rather dramatic looking red cape. His head was covered by a white do-rag, between that and the awful 90s Ray Ban shades, any details about this face were fairly well hidden. But one thing was glaringly clear, he was _not_ the Prince.

Then, the newcomer struck a pose in mid-air and Small Lady decided that not only was he not the Prince, he probably wasn't a Saiyan either. Just a normal human who'd learned to manipulate _ki_. Well, some help was better than no help.

"Evildoers tremble in fear!" He said, cape wafting in the wind behind him. "You cannot escape your evil deeds! The heavens may forgive you, but I, the Great Saiyaman, will not!"

Beside her, Sailor Ceres gave an excited little squeal. "Ohmygosh! Its really him! I heard he retired. I get to save the world with the Great Saiyaman! This is so exciting! I can't wait to get home and tell Mommy and Daddy!"

Small Lady didn't know who this 'Great Saiyaman' was, but between his introductory monologue and Sailor Ceres' excitement, she assumed he was either the new Tuxedo Mask since her father had moved to Silver Millennium, or else a male version of Sailor Moon. Either way, he knew how to use ki-techniques and he was here to help. It was exactly what Small Lady had asked for. It may not have come in the exact form she had imagined, but she had her second cavalry. Beggars cannot be choosers.

The Saiyaman landed in front of them, placing himself between the two Senshi and the Ice-jin soldiers. "Never fear, ladies, I'll protect you!"

Oh. He was one of _those_ heroes. He probably just read a few Superman comics and thought that was how real champions of Truth and Justice behaved. He was just playing hero. Whatever. He could still use _ki_-techniques. That was all Small Lady needed at the moment. "Saiyaman," she whispered, "can you keep the big pink one busy for a bit. I need some time to charge my attack."

He didn't turn his head, but she was pretty sure she saw him give a slight nod. Then he was gone from directly in from of her and instead directly in frond of the pink guy. Moving so fast, her eyes could barely follow him. The Saiyaman landed his first punch against the pink man's pudgy bubblegum cheek and sent him staggering backwards. The Saiyaman's second punch, however, he saw coming and caught in one pink spiky fist. The two began grappling hand-to-hand, seeming to be fairly evenly matched. But that was okay. Small Lady didn't need Saiyaman to win, she just needed him to keep Pinky busy long enough for her to launch an Escalation at him.

Small Lady began her posing. Raising the Moon Stick up to her cheek, then arching it over her head in a wide crescent swoop, before planting her feet together, straitening her back, turning sideways to her target and aiming the Moon Stick directly at the spiky pink alien. "Moon… Healing… _Escalation_!"

Saiyaman jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the shower of glittering, brightly colored sparkles that came cascading out of her wand towards their common foe. He hovered in the air over the scene for a few moments, as if confused by what had just happened. He lifted his Ray Ban shades up off his eyes and looked from Pinky to Sailor Moon and back again, as if trying to understand what exactly he was seeing. The Prince had reacted much the same was on the _Cutlass_. What? Had Saiyans never heard of a Magical Girl before?

"_Refresh_!" Pinky dropped to his knees, a dippy grin on his face.

Saiyaman once again landed close to Sailor Moon and Sailor Ceres. "What… what just happened?" He asked. "That attack -I couldn't sense any _ki_ in it."

Okay, so not only had Saiyans apparently never heard of Magical Girls before, but they also couldn't conceive of a way of fighting that didn't involve _ki_. But before Small Lady had a chance to reply, she was cut off by another voice.

"Aw, looks like we're late to the party."

They all looked to see another Sailor Senshi dressed in orange and white with a gold heartlink chain around her waist.

"Sailor Venus!" Small Lady smiled. "Took you long enough! Where have you been?"

"Ah, we were here." Sailor Mercury appeared, exiting one of the Ice-jin ships. "I wanted to examine their battleships and try and disable them if I could." Mercury's focus shifted from those gathered around the pink alien up to the sky. "But it looks like we're not the only ones who showed up late."

Coming from the opposite direction from which the Great Saiyaman appeared were almost two dozen Saiyan warriors. As they drifted down to them, Small Lady saw her father among them, and Sailor Jupiter. She was being carried by the one at the head of the formation. He landed closest to them, giving Small Lady and Sailor Ceres, Venus and Mercury a quick assessing glance before his attention fixed on the Great Saiyaman. "You just _had_ to put that stupid costume on, didn't you."

Saiyaman's only response was to grin like a fool.

Letting go of Jupiter, the older man sighed and ruffled his wild main of thick dark hair. "Whatever. Just tell me what happened here. How did you defeat the Ascendancy troops?"

Saiyaman's goofy grin turned sheepish. "Uh, actually I just got here." He admitted. Then nodded to Small Lady. "She was the one who beat them. I… I don't know how."

…

"I don't get it, the battle's over. Why are we still here?" Mako asked as she leaned against the wall beside the conference room door.

After all parties arrived at the Ascendancy's landing site, all the Sailor Senshi (Sailor Ceres included) were -politely- rounded up, escorted back to the Governor's Palace, and sequestered in one of the conference rooms where they were all issued a datapad and ordered to write up a report of the battle and their role in it.

"They made me do the same thing after the fight on the Bowman Space Dock." Small Lady informed them. "Some weird policy of the Imperial Fleet to treat everyone who fights with them as one of their troops and make them fill out a mission report. When I was on the _Patriot_, they had someone take my statement for me, I didn't have to write anything down, though. Just sign it after wards."

"They're probably to concerned with whether or not there'll be a third wave to bother with leaving a warrior to babysit us." Mina guessed.

"We're probably under heavy surveillance, though." Endymion suggested. "It would be just plain irresponsible of them to leave foreign soldiers alone and unsupervised in one of their government buildings."

Mako tapped the door release experimentally. "Locked."

"Oh, I bet Ami could hack that in a minute." Mina scoffed. "Right, Ami-chan?"

Sailor Mercury did not reply. Her attention was focused on the datapad she'd been issued. Her fingers flying wildly over the touch-screen.

"Oi, Ami, you still with us?" Mina elbowed the Senshi of Water and Wisdom in the side.

"Huh? Oh!" She blinked at them. "Sorry, was I to focused on the assignment again? I'm trying to translate my report into Saiyago. I think that would be easiest for them. But I'm not very fluent in the language. Do you think they'll be satisfied with just having it in English and Japanese? They seem able to speak both perfectly. Maybe I should delete my Saiyago version. I wouldn't want to inadvertently insult them."

Everyone in the room breathed a collective sigh of exasperation. Even Sailor Ceres whom didn't know Sailor Mercury. Or any of the Lunarian Senshi for that matter.

She'd never been in an Imperial conference room either. This had been a busy day for her. Alien invasions. Awakening new powers as a superhero. Meeting the Great Saiyaman. Now sitting in an Imperial office surrounded by more superheroes from another country. This was easily the most exciting day Valese had ever had!

"By the way," Mina began, jerking her thumb at Valese. "Who's this?"

"Oh! Sorry." Small Lady pipped up. "Guys, this is a newly awakened Senshi, Sailor Ceres. Ceres, this is Sailor Venus, warrior of Love and Beauty, Sailor Mercury, warrior of Water and Wisdom, Sailor Jupiter, warrior of Courage and Thunder, and then this is my Papa, King Endymion."

"Oh! My!" Valese jumped to her feet as if struck by lightning. Walking around the conference table, she knelt before Endymion, one knee to the ground, one fist to the floor, her other fist over her heart in a Saiyan salute. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty. Please forgive my ruddiness, I didn't realize you were royalty."

Endymion blinked at her from behind his white domino mask. A slight flush of embarrassment coloring his cheeks. The other Senshi attempted to hide amused smirks or snickers behind their hands -all except Ami whom had gone back to translating her report.

"Uh… Ceres, what are you doing?" Asked Small Lady awkwardly.

Valese blinked up at her. "Huh? Isn't this how you're supposed to bow to royalty? This is how I see Saiyans bow to the King on TV. Did I do something wrong?"

This time, Mina and Mako really did laugh. Their hands doing nothing to conceal their amusement at Valese's expense.

"I'm sure for a Saiyan King your bow was flawless." Endymion said in his best reassuring voice. "But, uh, in the Moon Kingdom, we don't make our Senshi humble themselves before us. Its, uh, not necessary."

"Oh. Uh. Sorry." Valese climbed back to her feet. Embarrassed.

Clearing her throat in an attempt to distract everyone from the newly awakened Senshi's faux pas, Small Lady asked, "By the way, where's Mars? I thought Mama sent all of you."

"Oh, she's here. She's supposed to be our back-up." Venus explained. "In case the Saiyans decided they didn't want our help and that we were infringing on their territory. She's supposed to cover us with her Flame Sniper and cover a quick escape."

"Ah." Small Lady nodded. That was uncommonly clever and cautious of her mother. It must have been someone else's idea.

Slowly, Valese raised her hand, as if asking a question in school. "I'm sorry, but you're all acting like the Saiyans are also bad guys. But… why? I mean, this is their planet. And I don't wanna get in trouble with the Imperial Police if they decide you guys are also bad guys. My parents would be so angry with me if I did! If you and the Saiyans don't trust each other, I think you should all just sit down and talk to each other. Its probably just a miscommunication. My mother says that talking things out is always the best way to solve a problem."

The room was silent for one… two… three beats.

Then, "Oh, she's definitely an Inner Senshi." Mina laughed. "Congratulations, Small Lady, you're found the first Senshi of your own team!"

It was at that comment that Ami finally raised her head from her report and gave the new Sailor Ceres her full attention. "You look different from the Sailor Ceres we met before."

...

Gohan took his Saiyaman shades off and layer them on his uncle's desk. Then pulled off his white scarf, likewise folding that and placing it on the desk. Uncle Raditz had never really liked the 'Great Saiyaman' handle or operations very much. Thought it was a waste of his talent and training. There were better things he could have done with his time after resigning his commission with the Fleet. Between his uncle's disapproval and his mother's nagging, Gohan eventually cut back on his galavanting around as the Saiyaman and used his pension from the Fleet to pay for college.

That was how he managed to earn two doctorates in Psychology, and _Ki_ Applications, plus a Masters in Cultural Studies as it pertained to Interplanetary Relations. It was also where he met Videl and ended up with a wedding ring and a daughter.

None of that was really relevant at the moment.

Relieved of his sunglasses, Gohan turned his attention back to the datapad Uncle Raditz casually tossed him before going to inspect the other fight zones, tally the friendly casualties and inventory the enemy dead. Then something had to be decided about what to do with those Sailor Moon had defeated. As enemies they were completely neutralized, they were harmless, but the Empire was not in the habit of taking prisoners -at least, not for the long term. Interrogations were time consuming, but didn't require many resources, maintaining prisoners, however, was a heavy research drain. Gohan loved the idea of being able to neutralize an enemy without killing them, killing was not something he enjoyed. In fact, he only marginally approved of it in specific circumstances -such as the protection of his family- but he also knew the Empire. Chances were, Uncle Raditz would ultimately decide that aside from Dodoria -the leader of this attack- there were no enemy survivors.

But that was an old point of contention between Gohan and the Fleet. It was one off the long list of reasons why he resigned his commission. He didn't approve, but there was also nothing he could do about.

What was weighing more heavily on Gohan's mind at the moment was the Sailor Senshi and their bizarre attacks. He had seen magic before. It was kinda hard to live at Mount Paozu and _not_ come across a magic user of one variety or another. But he'd never seen magic so… _potent_ before. The diversionary technique Sailor Ceres used wasn't all that impressive. He'd seen magic users preform similar feats. But he was surprised by how bold it was, the she sheer amount of coverage she got with her flower petals. But Sailor Moon's attack… that was down right _unheard of_!

It wasn't so much that Gohan couldn't sense any _ki_ from either her or her attack. He had seen magic before. Magic users -as a general rule- tended to be physically weak, with a low threshold for _ki,_ and fairly useless in a hand-to-hand fight. But their powers made up for their physical limitations. Allowing them to charm enemies into letting them go, summon plumes of fire or gusts of wind, use glamours to conceal their identities, transform people into animals, or use bright flashes of light -or similar- to distract or divert unfriendly attention (not unlike Sailor Ceres' move). But he'd never heard of a magic technique, spell, wand, or item that could excursive and enemy of all their evil. Well… maybe the Sacred Water. But it wasn't as… _aggressive_ as Sailor Moon's 'Moon Healing Escalation' seemed to be. It was interesting.

Magic wasn't exactly one of the fields Gohan could claim to be an expert in, but this would make for an interesting research project. He'd have to submit a formal request for copies of all the reports from those whom witnessed the Senshi fight -his own report included.

Uncle Raditz reentered the office.

He walked around the desk and slumped down in the chair with a sigh. "Sometimes I think your father has the right idea about things. If you're dead, you don't have to deal with this kind of crap."

At that comment, Gohan looked up from his report, politely insulted on his father's behalf. "That is _not_ why dad keep dying!"

"I know, I know…" Raditz replied, running a hand through his main. "It just feels that way sometimes. So, how _is_ your Dragon Ball hunt going?"

"I had just found one when they attacked." Gohan answered, turning his attention back to his report. Discussing his father's multiple deaths and the multiple reasons behind said deaths got real tired real fast.

"So, then, how many have you got so far?"

"Well," He placed the datapad with his unfinished report on Raditz's desk, "including that one… just one."

"Good news all around." Raditz muttered.

"Hey, have the Senshi submitted their reports yet?" Asked Gohan.

"Nobody's reports are in yet. Believe it or not, Gohan, but not everyone gets their rocks off to paperwork like you do." Raditz booted up his desk's terminal and began typing his own report. "Why do you ask?"

"Thinking of starting a new project." He supplied.

"I thought you were working on translating the 'Nine-thousand and One Lessons of Yasai'."

Gohan shrugged. "I can back-burner it. Can I have copies of all the reports relevant to the Senshi once their in?"

"Fill out Request Form sixty-seven dash seven B." Raditz replied without lifting his eyes from his terminal screen.

"Sixty-seven dash seven B is request to return property form." Gohan corrected, smiling slightly in amusement. Uncle Raditz had been doing this job for almost six years now and still couldn't remember which forms were for what. Thirty-four dash nine C is civilian request for copies of field reports." He should know. He filled out enough of them for his research on other projects.

"Then you already know what to do."

He did. Gohan didn't need to be told. But it would be nice to be able to bypass the bureaucratic hoops just once. Maybe if he had connections like Goten did. Having the Prince for a best friend did have its perks -a fact his younger brother delighted in rubbing his nose in. Speaking of Goten- "Oh Crap!" Gohan exclaimed. "During the attack I called Goten on the Patriot. I thought maybe he could get the Prince to get the King to send us some back-up. I never called him back to let him know we're okay. I left my scouter with Videl. He must be so worried!"

With an exasperated sigh, Uncle Raditz took off his own scouter and passed it to his nephew. "Here. Use mine."

Gohan took it, fastening it over his ear, he pulled up Goten's personal scouter number and opened the channel. There was a short wait, and then, "Hey, Baby Bro. Yes, its me. Yeah, I am calling from Uncle Raditz's scouter. No nothing happened to my scouter. I'm fine, by the way. Earth is fine too. So you don't have to worry about us. Mom is fine. Videl is fine. Pan is fine. So you can tell the higher-ups that- wait, what? You're where? Hang on!" Turning back to Raditz. "He says they dropped out of hyperspace a couple minutes ago and are four minutes away from drop distance for fighter pods."

Raditz blinked at him. "How'd they get here so fast?"

"How'd you get back here so fast?" A pause. "Isn't that absurdly dangerous? Ugh. Of course he did. I swear, that boy is exactly like Bulma-san sometimes. Well, I donno. I'm not your commanding officer. Fine. See you soon. Should I call Mom and tell her you'll be home for dinner? Or should I tell her that you are on planet but _not_ coming home to see her." An evil grin. "Looking forward to it, Baby Bro."

…


	7. Its a Small Universe Afterall

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment. Same disclaimer applies for Sailor Moon and related characters.

Space Opera

Chapter Seven: Small Universe Afterall

Goten stood on the bridge of the _Patriot_, a little to nervous to sit.

It wasn't nerves over the situation on Earth, at least, not_ just_ nerves over the situation on Earth. In fact, at the present moment, the situation on Earth was a minor contributor to the Captain's nerves. What had him itchy and on his feet at the moment was rather, the effect burning pure dhylearium seemed to be having on the ship. It wasn't at all the effect he expected.

Goten thought that pumping the undiluted propellant into the hyperdrive cylinders would cause over-heating. Or maybe Trunks' tampering might cause some leakage and they'd all have to wear breathing masks or be on Fire Alert during the trip. But no. None of those things happened. Instead, the ship was… 'warping' seemed to be the most accurate term he could think of. Random parts, or stretches of corridor randomly shifted, or changed shape. Ripples forming in otherwise smooth metal surfaces, railings twisting, viewports shifting positions in the outer hull. Not large shifts. Not nearly enough to cause significant problems.

At least, no significant problems beyond scaring the crew out of their wits and causing general moral to take a nose-dive.

When asked what exactly was happening, the Prince replied that it was nothing to worry about, just the dhylearium getting over-excited.

The other mechanics, and engineering technicians could provide no better explanations. To be completely honest, to spite the fact that they worked intimately with the ship's engines, none of them really knew much about dhylearium. It was a relatively new fuel source not developed, but rather _discovered_ by the King's human mate, Queen Bulma. That meant that the only people who really knew what it was were the Queen and the Prince. When Goten asked Trunks in private to give a better explanation for why their greatest source of fuel was wreaking havoc with their ship, he gave one of his most confusing answers ever. And for Trunks, that was saying something.

Apparently, dhylearium wasn't an element either natural or artificial -it could not be found on the Periodic Table. Neither was it a compound, or a solution. Instead, the Prince called it the 'flotsam of the cosmos' whatever that meant. But it was what allowed them to travel faster than the speed of light. _That_ then launched Trunks into the second and much scarier half of his lecture. Something about when traveling faster than light, they were actually traveling through both space _and_ time, and the warping of the chip was actually the natural order of the universe augmenting things to avoid a paradox. Apparently, the universe did that -often- fixing itself to avoid paradoxes. In fact, his mother had a theory that it might even go so far as to create an alternate timeline in order to avoid a paradox, thus making the universe a multiverse.

That last bit was not relevant in the least. It was just interesting.

Bottom line: dhylearium was the 'stuff' that existed in the space between electrons, in the pause between the _tick_ and the _tock_ of a clock. When you broke down the universe -or multiverse, he supposed- into its smallest possible pieces, dhylearium was what you were left with. The reason why dhylearium allowed ships to travel faster than the speed of light was because they were actually traveling through time.

So… yeah! No need to worry. Just Trunks playing Mad Scientist with forces beyond mortal understanding.

He tried to push it from his mind for the moment and instead focus on the mission. Get back to Earth, deploy troops, save everyone. "Helm, status?"

"Ten seconds to drop, Sir." Answered the officer at the helm. "Just need confirmation from the Prince that its safe."

Tapping his scouter, Goten called Trunks down in the engine room. "Your Highness, ten seconds to hyperspace drop."

"Okay." His friends voice came back, sounding slightly distorted. 'Temporal shifting' he explained. "Tell 'em to drop now. Don't pay attention to what their dials tell them."

He wanted to ask 'why?' but at the same time, was also pretty sure that he didn't want to know. "Helm, hyperspace drop now."

"Yes, Sir."

The mottled sky of hyperspace shifted back to starlines, light streaking past the viewports, then the starlines shrunk back into stars and they were once again flying through normal space. The Earth hanging large in the main viewport in front of them. They were about eight minutes out from the standard diastase for dropping troop pods.

"Open the Pod Bay doors." He ordered. "Be sure all ground troops are standing by."

"Sir!" The internal comm tech acknowledged.

Goten's scouter pinged with a call from the Prince.

"I'm cutting the engines now." He said. "We'll still maintain the same speed we're at now, but won't get any more acceleration. I'm leaving main steering functional, but tell whoever you got at the helm that if he can use Earth gravity to turn us instead, that would be better. Also, after you deploy the troops, I'm deactivating the internal gravity and opening the airlocks to void the atmosphere. So whoever's still aboard will want to insulate themselves with their _ki_ and strap on an oxygen mask."

That all sounded so very fun. "Why?"

"Need to clear out any residual dhylearium particles still un-contained."

Fine, then. "Command crew, assume standard atmo-void procedures. Helm, minimal steering. Try and utilize the planet's natural gravity well to turn the ship."

A few heads turned back, silent questions painted on their faces. But no one asked.

Goten's scouter pinged again, this time the ID that scrolled across the green glass was Raditz's. Just arrived and already the planet was shouting for aid. "Hey, Uncle Razzy! Niisan? Are you calling from Uncle Razzy's scouter? What happened to yours, the one with the old ID you called me on earlier." The Captain breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad everything's fine. You can tell me how you did it when we land. We're above Earth right now. About four minutes away from Pod distance, we just dropped out of hyperspace. Pumping pure dhylreaium into the cylinders. The Prince assured me everything is fine. _Yes_, I'll be home for dinner."

He ended the call and glared at those of the bridge crew who turned to glance at him curiously. They turned back to their work without any words needing to be exchanged.

Goten tapped his scouter again, this time to call Trunks back. "Change of plans. We're not launching the troops, we're just bringing the ship in. Do you need to do anything in there so we can change course and head for the Tasien Space Dock?"

"Why? What's going on? " Trunks voice came back confused and slightly worried. "Don't tell me we're still to late! After all this work I did nearly propelling us into an alternate timeline and all."

Whoa, whoa whoa. Alternate time what!? Punch him in the nose and ask about it later. "No. Everything's fine. Apparently, they beat them back without us."

"What? How?"

"Donno. We'll find out once we get down there. So, Tasien?"

"I'll still need to void any residual dhylearium particles not contained. Might as well leave the Bay doors open even if you're not launching troops. As for docking at Tasien, it would be easier for me to put all this back together if I could leave the ship's gravity generator off but still have a normal gravity orientation to work in, so landing on Earth would be better for me."

"You got it." Goten clicked off his scouter. "Prepare for atmo-void. Then, Helm, take us down to the surface."

For the first time since leaving the rest of the Fleet, the Captain sat down in the Captain's Chair, strapping the X-shaped crash harness around himself. One might wonder why a Saiyan ship was equipped with crash harnesses when the impact of simply being thrown against the walls of their own ship couldn't hurt them much, but you would be forgetting that the ship could be damaged by Saiyans banging into it. The crash harnesses were more to protect the walls and consoles from the Saiyans than it was to protect the Saiyans from the walls and consoles.

The bridge was filled with the snapping and clicking of belts and the pulling and tightening of straps. No sooner had the sound died down and silence fallen over the cabin once more than the lights suddenly flicked off, plunging them into total and complete darkness.

The red tinted auxiliary lights came on in their place just as Goten began to feel weightless in his seat, the crossed belts of his harness pressing against his chest, holding him down.

There was a crackle over the _Patriot_'s intercom system then the Prince's voice announced, "Voiding ship in three seconds. Hope everyone's got everything strapped down or else doesn't mind losing it."

Not long after the intercom clicked off the auto lock on the bridge's main doors was overridden and they slid open. Echoing from down the corridors, Goten could hear every main door in the ship sliding open. Through out the ship it was like a while wind, rushing to escape into the backness of space. But it didn't feel like much on the bridge. Just a light gust of air streaming out through the bridge doors, then it got very hard to breath, then he couldn't breath at all. Goten slid open the emergency panel under his seat and withdrew the oxygen mask that was stored there. Using his _ki_ to insulate the rest of his body from the vacuum.

There were a few moments of complete silence. Deafening, total silence.

Sound was how people's ears interpreted oscillation through mater. But with there was no mater to oscillate through, then there was no 'sound' for your ears to detect. No mater how good your hearing was. That's why they said 'In space, no one can hear you scream'. Outside, it was an exhilarating feeling, but within the confines of a spaceship, a place that is supposed to have air and gravity, it was terrifying. Amazing the difference a little context makes.

Then the bridge doors slid closed.

Sound returned as fresh oxygen was pumped in through the ventilation systems. The red-tinted auxiliary lights flicked off and were replaced by the standard LED lights running light. Then, the intercom crackled again. "Well, that was fun, wasn't it." Said the Prince. "A few announcements, someone lost a very nice looking sonic pen. Hope it wasn't important. Who still uses pens in this Empire anyway. To whoever was growing the sparkweed in their bunk, that's gone too I'm afraid. But then, that's probably for the best since, if they were caught with it, it would have been an immediate court martial. That's all. Helm, you can take us in now. And remember, the _Patriot_ was designed for water-landings. I suggest the Pacific."

…

Some time later, Goten landed on the Governor's Palace roof-access. The Prince opted to stay on the _Patriot_ and put the engines back together. Something about spending some 'alone time' with his 'best girl'. Whatever. Putting the ship's engines back together suited the Captain just fine. It was hard enough getting a warship to break a planet's gravity well without the added disadvantage of the engines looking like a small pack of wild Mac Nac Feegles had torn through it.

Two guards greeted him on the roof. His Captain's bars were perfectly visible on his armor's breastplate, but it still wasn't that long after the attack -second attack- which meant they were on the look out for a third wave, which meant the security protocols were increased. Level three by the look of it. That's three out of five, with one being the lowest, everyday security, have a long lunch and chat at the water-cooler, nothing special, and level five being the highest, all able fighters mobilized, full armor, lock up all civilian and non-fighters to ensure maximum preservation on life and prepare for the apocalypse. Level Three was right in the middle. Martial law, mostly. ID checks at all major entrances, intersections, and checkpoints, curfew for all citizens and non-active military, etc.

So, even though his Captain's bars were perfectly visible, he pulled out his military ID as well.

They checked the picture against his face. His rank against his visible bars, swiped his ID card through a data pad and asked him three security questions. Once they were satisfied that he was, in fact, Son Goten, First Class, Third Degree, Captain of the _SES Patriot_, one of them escorted him to the Governor's office.

Uncle Razzy was sitting at his desk, scowling at his terminal -as he often tended to do when dealing with paperwork he did not want to do (which was all paperwork, all the time). Gohan was there too. Sitting in front of the desk, a datapad in his hands, typing out something of his own. Most likely an incident report, given the circumstances. He was wearing the black leotard and green tunic of his- no… Goten's brain screamed as he processed what his big brother was wearing. No, no, no, no! They got him to retire that ridiculous persona! He thought the costume got burned. Ugh! This was going to be an obnoxious reunion if Goten didn't nip it in the bud.

Gohan turned when the door opened but before he could get even a word in, Goten cut him off.

"Don't get up!" He said, perhaps a bit to forcefully. "No poses. No monologues. I don't need to hear it."

From behind his desk, Uncle Razzy stifled a laugh. "He's got your number, Gohan." Then, shifting his eyes to the guard that had escorted him, "Thank you, Corporal, that will be all."

The guard saluted, his fist over his chest, and left.

Goten waited for the door to shut all the way before he crossed the room and flopped down in the second chair, next to his brother. "Okay, so explain to me now how you managed to fend off three ships of Ascendancy troops without any backup?"

"Well, we didn't _exactly_ not have any back up." Gohan began. "We got some unexpected help from an equally unexpected source."

"Really?" Goten blinked. "From where?" Then, remembering Trunks frightening explanation of the dhylearium fuel propelling ships so fast that they bordered on time travel, he suddenly found himself asking softly, almost cautious of the answer, "Time travelers?"

"No." Gohan blinked at him in confusion. That was a random thing to ask. Then again, it was a strange and magnificent universe out there and Gohan had seen his own share of the bizarre and wonderful during his four years of required service. Perhaps Goten had come across time travel before and was just covering his bases. "Our help was much less unlikely than that. It was the Lunarians, ya know, Moon People."

"Really?" Goten leaned back in his seat, steepling his fingers in front of him.

Uncle Razzy looked up from his report. "You don't look all that surprised."

"Oh, well, we got a bit of help from one of them ourselves back on the Bowman Space Dock." He said. "From their Princess in fact. Nice girl. Reminds me a bit of our own Prince -but much easier on the eyes."

"That's a little strange." Uncle Razzy leaned back from his desk, crossing his arms over his chest in thought. "Lunarians coming to our aid twice in the same week for no apparent reason and with no prompting from us… seems a bit suspicious. They must have an ulterior motive."

"Of course they do." Gohan agreed. "Earth is right next to the Moon. Heck, most of us could just fly there on a whim. They probably don't want the Ice-jin for neighbors anymore than we do."

"They've never shown any interest in combating the Ascendancy before." Raditz pointed out.

"The Ascendancy's never targeted Earth before." Gohan countered.

Goten though back to his interview with the Princess. When he was trying to debrief her on the _Patriot_ after the short scuffle on the Bowman Space Dock. She had been trying to sneak onto Earth illegally. Not to stay there permanently, of course, just to visit. She visited Earth frequently, this one time, she just happened to get caught do to extenuating circumstances. But she would keep coming back to Earth. Goten never asked why. It wasn't exactly relevant to what he was trying to get out of her at the time. But she had volunteered that she was looking for someone. The Moon Kingdom wanted someone from Earth. No. Not the Moon Kingdom, just the Princess. The Princess wanted someone from Earth.

_'You see, there was this boy..._'

So, he interjected, "The Lunarian Princess is looking for someone. Someone she's sure is on Earth."

Uncle and brother both turned to look at him, the same question on both their lips. "Who?"

They then launched into a volley of questions which Gohan did not know the answers to.

"What does she want with him, or her?" Asked Gohan.

"Is this person supposed to have any special powers?" Asked Uncle Razzy. "Could they be used as a weapon?"

"Are they a native to Earth, or a Lunarian whom might have defected?"

"Do you think they might pose a threat to this planet or the Empire?"

Goten held up both his hands, silently pleading for them to pause long enough for him to explain. "I don't know." He said. "It wasn't relevant at the time, so I didn't ask. All I know is that he's a _he_, and the Princess is looking for him. The _Princess_, not the Moon Kingdom. It seemed like a personal matter."

"Oh." Both men were suddenly silenced.

A personal matter. And the Lunarian Princess was a teenaged girl. That meant it was most likely romantic trouble and not anything nefarious or threatening to the Empire. The fact that it happened to cross inter-planetary boarders was just an unfortunate circumstance of her romantic drama. It wasn't anything the Saiyans need worry about, other than the fact that it provided at least a flimsy explanation for the Moon Kingdom's sudden interest in the Earth and protecting it. Guarding Earth from the Ascendancy also meant guarding whoever this fella was that their Princess favored.

"So then, what are you gonna do with them?" Goten asked. "You don't exactly have the authority to enter into a formal treaty with them, Uncle Razzy, and you're already in trouble with the King over not reacting fast enough when the Space Dock was attacked. Now that we're here with the _Patriot_, are you gonna kick them off?"

Uncle Razzy smiled ironically. "Your brother wants to turn them into his new research project."

"Wait, I thought you were working on that child-development thing on _hansaiya_ from a neural-psychological perspective."

"That was two years ago." Gohan corrected flatly. "It was the second book I published. I sent you a copy!"

Goten thought for a moment. Books were not exactly his favorite thing in the universe. But packages during mail-call were rare, which made them special. Mom usually sent scarves, sweaters, or some version of her cooking packaged to survive the trip though the mail. The last time he had received a book was a while ago. What had he done with it…? Oh. Right. It was currently holding up a desk with a wobbly leg in his suit in the Imperial Palace.

"Oh. Yeah." He said awkwardly. "It was very good."

"You didn't even read past the title, did you."

"No. Not really. Sorry." Goten folded like a house of cards. "But hey! At least I remembered what it was you were researching!"

"_Anyway…_" Uncle Razzy cut in between the brothers before this conversation could progress into an actual tiff. "Someone needs to collect the datapads we issued to the Lunarians."

"Its below my pay grade." Goten crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head.

"I'll do it!" Gohan volunteered. "Since I can't see their reports without filling out a stack of useless forms, it would be a great opportunity to speak with them personally about their powers."

"You resigned your commission." Goten reminded him. "You're just a civilian." Looking him up and down. "A civilian in a ridiculous costume."

Gohan smiled evilly. "True. But I could still interview them if an officer of a high enough pay grade accompanies me…"

…

Small Lady fiddled with her datapad. She, and the others, had finished their incident reports some time ago and were left in the conference room they'd been locked in with nothing else to do and no word from their Saiyan hosts. Needless to say, they were all getting a bit anxious. And these stupid datapads didn't even have any game apps! What the hell was up with that?

She wondered for a moment if the Prince had left some sort of standing order to give her and anyone associated with her a hard time. It seemed like the kind of thing a jerk like that would do. (Not that she knew him very well to begin with.) It was stupid, and petty, and didn't achieve anything. All it did was succeed in annoying her beyond her wits. Oh! How she hated that man! And Small Lady only met him _once_. The next time she saw the Saiyan Prince, she was gonna slap him right in his undeniably handsome, spoiled brat face!

Why were the pretty ones always such jerks!?

She would have liked to blame it on him being Saiyan. After all, didn't Saiyans have a reputation of being insufferable jackasses? But that explanation just didn't line-up with her other experiences with Saiyans. The Captain of the Prince's ship had been polite. It was clear that he didn't want her there any more than she wanted to be there, but he was at least civil about it. Then there was the dual-lineaged Saiyan she'd met as a child. He had been nice too. Better than nice. They had been friends.

Maybe this time, since they ad helped save the Earth from an invading enemy, they would let her stay long enough to actually search for him this time. Of course, her previous attempts at finding him were unsuccessful -as evident by the fact that she was still looking. But she if she kept trying, Small Lady was confident that she would meet him again. After all, they had met once before, purely by happenstance. Why shouldn't they meet again, even if just by pure chance?

She tapped the datapad screen again. So, they didn't have any game apps. Maybe there was something else she could amuse herself with on here. Like an e-reader app or a hook-up to a video site. But no. There was just the word program that allowed them to type out their reports. The damn Saiyans probably didn't want them accessing anything they shouldn't, so they would take just about everything but essential programs off the pads before giving them to a foreign group to use. The Empire might be lots of things, but 'stupid' was not one other. 'Trusting' was also a quality they did not have. Neither were they very 'welcoming'.

Jeez. They were like a police state. Always keeping track of everything…

Always keeping track of everything!

Small Lady sat up strait as she had an epiphany. The Empire kept a record of almost everything that happened on any of its sovereign planets. So, it stood to reason, that there should be a record of that dual-lineaged Saiyan rampaging through West City in his giant monkey form. It was something that probably didn't happen every month -she assumed- and another Saiyan in full armor did have to show up to subdue him before he could do to much damage. So, there would have to be a record of the incident.

Did they save documents that old, though? Ten years… Maybe in a backlog or an archive? Where would she start looking? A public library? Oh! Yeah! A public library would have old newspapers. And she knew the exact date. A giant purple monkey tearing through town was sure to have made the papers. It may not help her find him -after all, what were the chances of him still living in the same place ten years later?- but it might, at least, give her his full name. Then, she could just look him up an a directory. Easy as 'make-up'!

Alright. She had a plan. Small Lady was suddenly feeling very good about herself. Very optimistic.

The door to their conference room slid open and all heads turned to see two Saiyans enter.

The Great Saiyaman they recognized from before. He wore a friendly smile. The other, was slightly shorter and younger looking. Wearing full armor with the bars of a Captain, and looking board. Small Lady recognized him instantly as the Captain of the Prince's ship. What was his name again..?

"Ah, Son, what are you doing here?"

But it was the Great Saiyaman who answered. "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind explaining a little of your Sailor magic to me. Its different from the magic we have here on Earth and-"

He was elbowed in the ribs by the Captain. "She meant me, Niisan."

No sooner did Small Lady process that little exchange before Valese jumped to her feet, suddenly commanding the attention of everyone in the room. "Ah! Did you just call the Great Saiyaman 'Niisan'? Are you the Saiyaman's brother?" She closed the distance between them. "How cool! And you're totally my age too! Since I'm a superhero too, now, do you think we can hang out? What's your name? Wow, you're totally cute!"

"Uh…" Poor Captain Son. He had absolutely no idea how to respond this enthusiastic onslaught. Guess with the much more handsome and much more famous Prince standing next to him, he didn't really get this much adoring attention from women on a regular basis. "Uh…"

Small Lady felt a rather large drop of sweat roll down the back of her head. Yup. Valese was a Sailor Senshi alright. Suddenly and spontaneously crushing on a cute guy for not other reason than he was cute. Or, in this case, was related to her childhood hero.

"Uh…" He was blushing now. And he had such great composure on the _Patriot_ too.

The Great Saiyaman turned, tipping his shades just enough to look down the bridge of his nose at his little brother. After deciding that there wasn't anything he could (or, perhaps more accurately, nothing he _would_ do) to help his sibling along, he turned back to the Lunarians and said with a smile. "Well, while he's busy figuring out what comes next, I can collect your datapads for you."

The Lunarians all exchanged one unifying awkward glance, before each pick dup their individual pad and passed it to the Saiyaman.

"Goten!" The Captain blurted out, finally. "I mean, uh, my name's Son Goten. And you are?"

She smiled back at him. "I'm Valese. Pleased to meet you, Goten-sama." She was about to shake his hand, but changed her mind at the last second and instead saluted with her fist over her heart. …Then her hand flew to her mouth in sudden alarm. "Oh, shoot! Was I supposed to give you my superhero name instead? I'm Sailor Ceres. Does this mean that now I don't have a secret identity?"

Once again, everyone exchanged a single, unifying, awkward glance.

"You're secret's safe with me." The Captain assured her. Then, "If you don't have to go back to the Moon Kingdom just yet, maybe we could get some ice cream later?"

"Oh! That sounds great! My parents never let me eat ice cream before!"

Small Lady wondered if now was a good time to mention that Valese was actually from Earth and probably wouldn't return with the rest of them to SIlver Millennium. Then, her brain pressed the more subtle implications of the Captain's statement, 'if you don't have to'. Was he saying that they could come and go at their lea sure now? What changed? They couldn't wait to send her back to her own country when she was on the _Patriot_. Did the Captain have the authority to say they could stay? Or was he just talking out of his ass because Valese caught him off guard and he was suddenly smitten?

"Great!" The Captain smiled back. "I'll fix it with the Prince so you can stay as long as you need."

Small Lady gave a snort of derision. Ha! As if. That pompous ass wasn't likely to do anything that didn't serve his own ends. Not even overturn foreign visitation laws so his bro could get laid. (Assuming, of course, that he _could_ get laid. From Valese's description of her parents thus far, they seemed like the type who wouldn't leave their daughter alone with a man long enough to steal a kiss, never mind get down and dirty.) Of course, that was a moot point since Valese was from Earth originally. But Captain Son didn't know that. She was wearing a Sailor uniform, sequestered in a room full of other Sailor soldiers (and Tuxedo Mask). As far as Son knew, Valese was also a Lunarian.

…

Goten wondered exactly how he was gonna convince Trunks to let the Lunarians stay on Earth a while. Maybe he could sell it as defying his father in a new and creative way. That tended to be the main motivation for much of the way the Prince lived his life. 'What would piss father off?' Grow hair long, check. Use weapon in battle even though don't need one, check. Take apart and put back together engines of King's flagship just to see what would happen, check. And also ow. That had not been a fun weekend. And the _Executor_ had to be retired and scrapped shortly after that. The punishment that had been visited upon both Trunks _and_ Goten for that little stunt was not a cakewalk.

Bottom line: Trunks would do it if it would piss off Vegeta. Especially since he'd already been forbidden from the Moon Kingdom. Looking at it that way, Goten was confident that he wouldn't need to convince Trunks at all. Merely suggest it is all.

He felt rather optimistic as he lead the Lunarians to their temporary lodgings while they waited for the Prince.

Prior to Imperial occupation, most Earthlings like to construct their state buildings so that all public offices, petitioning platforms, or clerk desks were on the lower floors with private offices above them, and then living suits above them all. The thinking behind this was to put the place where you sleep farthest from the noise of paper shuffling and bureaucracy turning. Since the Empire claimed ownership of Earth, that pattern stayed pretty much the same in most Earthling palaces. Monarchs (allowed to continue to rule their small piece of the Earth by the Empire) still kept meetings with petitioners, or conferences with lieutenants to their ground floors, while keeping their private chambers higher up. But for Imperial buildings, that method of organization was turned inside out.

The lower levels of the Governor's Palace were still devoted to civilian affairs. An normal Earthling could walk in off the street -once they showed the proper ID and they entry was logged- and meet with whatever clerk was appropriate for their claim. The majority of Earth's population could not fly, so that stayed pretty much the same for them. But the Saiyans could fly. All of them. In fact, flying was actually easier than walking. So, rooms devoted to the needs of the Empire were placed on the top floors. The conference rooms, title offices, interrogation rooms, holding cells, and of course, the Governor's office, were all on the top six floors.

Sandwiched in the middle were the residential suits.

The term 'residential' was applied loosely. They were really no better than upscale hotel rooms. Except there was no mini-bar -Empire was to cheap to spring for alcohol- and the mini-fridge was _much_ better stocked.

Goten made sure that Valese had his scouter code before he left. Her initial introduction was unexpected and threw him off guard, but he liked her aggressiveness coupled with her apparent naiveté. It was refreshing. The fact that she seemed to think Gohan's 'Great Saiyaman' persona was cool was a bit annoying, but he was willing to look past it for her other good qualities. Plus, she was cute and in a short skirt. How could he say no?

As Goten was leaving, the Princess grabbed him by the arm. Pulling him to the side, away from the others.

"Son," she began, not giving the chance to ask what was the big idea, "you're pretty high up on the Imperial food chain -Captain of the Prince's flagship and all- so, you'd be the person to ask if I wanted to find someone."

Ah. Her mysterious boy. Goten was wondering if she'd mention him again. "That would depend on the person you're looking for and why. Even non-Saiyan citizens are entitled to their own share of privacy."

"The person I'm looking for," she began again, then hesitated. After a pause, she continued, "he's a dual-lineaged Saiyan. About my age. Eh… maybe a bit older, your age, maybe. How would I go about finding him."

Hm. That was interesting. There weren't many half-Saiyans in that age group. According to the _Hansaiya_ Registry, there were only a little over a half-dozen _hansaiya_ between the ages of fifteen and twenty. The Princess' guesstamation would put her mystery boy right smack dab in the middle of that bracket, but of those half-dozen, only about four of them were male, and two of those four were himself and Trunks, leaving only two other options for her. Maybe her _hansaiya_ was undocumented? But that couldn't be. Because of the _hansaiya_ potential for power, the Empire monitored their births _very_ carefully.

Well, even if her frivolous quest had become a little more interesting, he could at least answer her question in part. "If he's my age right now, then you're probably not gonna find him on Earth." Goten explained. "Every citizen with Saiyan blood is required to serve a minimum of four years military service after they come of age. The age of majority for a Saiyan is fourteen. So, if he's seventeen or eighteen right now, then he'd still be serving his term."

"Oh." The Princess' eyes fell. "I didn't know that…"

He patted her on the shoulder, wondering if her thoughts had suddenly turned towards the possibility that her mysterious boy might be dead or permanently maimed. Such things did happen during one's service. Goten considered himself lucky to be three years into his service and still have all his fingers and limbs with just cosmetic scars to make his body interesting. But other warriors were not as lucky.

Then, the Princess perked up, an idea occurring to her. "Hey, if he's in the Navy right now, maybe you might have met him? Like I said, he's closer to your age, um… I haven't seen him in years so I don't know what he'd look like now, but he had purple hair. Like the Prince's hair, only shorter -well, it was shorter back then, I donno what he might have done with it now. And blue eyes. Really friendly blue eyes. Um, what else… ah! He likes cats because his grandfather always had a cat with him. Um… and his favorite food is _yakiniku_."

Goten suddenly found it hard to breath. He wasn't sure if the difficulty was because he was shocked speechless, was fighting to hard to control sudden hysterical laughter that his lungs forgot how to work, or that he was suddenly to busy trying to process the information he'd just been given to bother with silly things like oxygen. It was Trunks! She just described Trunks. In a nut shell! The _hansaiya_ boy the Princess was looking for was Trunks!

It was true what they say, '_Its a small universe after all._'

Okay, liking yakiniku, sure, that was a common food. Grilled meat. Lots of people liked it. Saiyan, human, and _hansaiya_. No big deal. Likes cat, again, another general thing that could apply to anyone. But the reason behind it was more specific. Trunks grandfather on his mother's side did always have a black cat with him. It sat on his shoulder as a sort of eccentric companion or possibly muse while he was working in his lab. But lets give it the benefit of the doubt. Other grandfathers out there might also keep a cat as a companion. But the blue eyes and lavender hair… that was not a general characteristic. Of everyone on the _Hansaiya_ Registry to date, only two _hansaiya_ had blue eyes, and only _one_ of them had lavender hair.

Trunks.

Goten might have made a sort of scratchy, croaking sound in the back of his throat as he stubbled to get enough words together to answer the Moon Princess. "That's…" he began, croaked, tried again. "That's a rare coloring. You, uh, wouldn't happen to have a name, would you?"

Because if she already had the name 'Vegeta' then this girl was an idiot.

"He said his name was 'Briefs'." She answered. "I remember because I made fun of him for it."

And she lived to tell the tale. Wow, Trunks must have really liked her when he was eight. 'Briefs' was his grandfather's name -Dr. Briefs. But more importantly, it was the alias he gave when posing as a civilian. Because the name 'Vegeta' drew far to much attention and the name 'Trunks' was supposed to be a secret name only his family and closest friends could know, he used his grandfather's name when the Prince wanted to play the Pauper every now and again.

And then, Goten got the perfect idea for the perfect prank to pull on his friend. Nothing big or complicated, just a little something to get back at him for all the messes he got dragged into because of the Prince. "Actually, Princess, I do know a _hansaiya_ by that name. You wouldn't believe it, but he's on the _Patriot_ right now. I've go him doing some work on our engines."

"_Really_!?" He face lit up with expectant hope.

"I have to go back there anyway to talk to the Prince. Would you like to join me?" Oh, he was definitely going to enjoy this. Better make sure the photo app on his scouter was up-to-date. Or, maybe he should take a video instead. Oh, he'd figure that out when they got there. Bottom line: he was never gonna let Trunks live this down. His own Moon Kingdom groupie.

"I'd like that very much!" Nodded the Princess. "When can we leave? I'm ready right now."

…


	8. We Meet Again & Again

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment. Same disclaimer applies for Sailor Moon and related characters.

Space Opera

Chapter Eight: We Meet Again & Again

Small Lady had never actually seen the _Patriot_ from outside before. Not all of it, at least. On the Bowman Space Dock all she got to see was the outer hatch before she was quickly escorted inside and locked in a conference room to be questioned.

Now, flying over the Pacific, being carried by Captain Son, she got to see more of it. A long, slightly arrow shaped ship, with sleek lines. It was a dark steely-gray, the Saiyans not believing in waisting paint on cosmetic adornment when the dang thing was just gonna get chipped and blasted off by every variety of space waves, rays, debris and, of course, the occasional battle. But, engraved along the side in standard Imperial Basic was the name _SES Patriot_ and then in slightly smaller lettering was the ship's serial number.

They landed on the slightly convex roof of the ship, the spray from the sea making its smooth surface slippery under Small Lady's boots.

The ship's main gangplank, the hatch through witch she had entered before, was unfortunately below the water line and completely inaccessible. But the Captain kicked open a panel in the ships plating that concealed what looked like a simple keypad and typed in a ten digit code. There was a _snap-hiss_ sound, as a hatch next to the keypad was unlocked, its airlock unsealed and the rushed to equalize the internal and external pressures. When the sound died away, the Captain pulled the hatch open for the Princess to climb in.

It was a much smaller entry than the main gangplank, just a bit larger than a manhole on a city street. Small Lady climbed down a ladder into a slightly larger, but still pretty cramped chamber. The space just big enough for three or four armored Saiyans to stand in. On the floor beneath her was another hatch. So, this was the other door of the airlock.

The Captain sealed the outer hatch behind him and slid down the ladder. With the outer door sealed, the inner hatch popped open automatically and Small Lady climbed through a slightly wider passage that sloped at a sixty degree angle and finally emerged into one of the ships corridors. Brightly lit, spacious, highly polished. Like every inch of the ship's interior that she'd seen on her first visit on the _Patriot_.

She crossed her arms over her chest when the Captain emerged after her. Giving him a look of impatience, she said, "Okay, Son, now where's Briefs?"

The corners of his mouth twitched asymmetrically, almost as if he were fighting the urge to smile or laugh, and instead said, "I told you, I've go him working on the engines. Aft section, level 6-B."

He led her through the corridors of the ship and down one lift to one of the _Patriot_'s six engine rooms. It was a large, wide chamber with high ceilings and rubber coated floors -for insulation. The engines were massive. A complex network of tubes and cables that fed into tanks of varying shapes and sizes, all labeled with 'Hazardous' and 'Caution' plaques. And things that looked like moving parts, only they were all stopped at the moment. Gears, and pistons, and belts. Small Lady was by no means a mechanical expert, she had no skill for the trade, but she wasn't dumb and did know enough to change her own tire if she were ever to actually own a car. But a car was a far cry from this technological monstrosity before her and she was at a loss to make sense of it all.

"He's in here… somewhere." The Captain assured her.

Small Lady began wandering through the labyrinth-like engine room. My gosh! How did anyone keep track of all this!? She looked in every direction her head could possibly turn. Everywhere she looked she saw something interesting. But no lavender-haired Saiyan boy with friendly blue eyes.

Then she herd the_ snap-hiss_ of another pressure release and looked up, following the sound. Her eyes locked on a man wearing a plain blue-gray mechanic's jumpsuit and safety goggles, just in time to see him get sprayed in the face with a darkly colored substance. Some kind of oil maybe? Or lubricant? Or fuel? Coolant? Windshield wiper fluid? Small Lady didn't even know enough to hazard a guess. But it was a good thing he'd been wearing his goggles. His hair was pulled back and up into a tight knot and covered with a bandanna tied like a do-rag over his head, but from her angle, Small Lady could just make out a few strands of lavender hair poking through.

It was him.

Her dual-lineaged Saiyan boy.

Small Lady ran in search of a way up to where he was working. The ship was designed for Saiyans and all Saiyans could fly, so the engine room was devoid of normal things like ladders or catwalks -things that would give a normal human mechanic access to the higher up or harder to reach machinery. Small Lady couldn't fly. But she could climb, and all the hardware gave her plenty of hand and foot holds. If the engines had been turned on at that moment, she was fairly certain she would have been crushed to death by the gears or pistons, or other moving parts. But to her relief and great advantage, all the machinery was frozen in place.

When she was close enough to him to be heard over the sound of his tools scraping over metal, Small Lady called to him, "Briefs!"

There was the pause of a beat, in which Small Lady was sure her heart stopped and she forgot to breath.

Then, with his lips down-turned in a confused frown, Briefs turned at the sound of his name.

She didn't give him a chance to say anything. Small Lady launched herself from the piston she was perched precariously on, jumping onto his arms in a tight -almost suffocating- hug. It took her ten years, but she finally found him again. Her purple haired Saiyan boy. Her weremoneky. He heart beat fast against her chest with excitement and in the spur of the moment, overcome with the emotion of finally finding him, Small Lady surprised even herself by doing something she did not intend.

Hooking one arm around his neck and the other behind his head, she pulled herself up enough, and his face down enough to kiss him on the lips.

A clumsy kiss by all standards. But earnest and passionate. Conveying feelings for him she didn't even know she had until that moment. They had been childhood friends. Just friends. And Small Lady thought that's what they would always be to one another. But you don't invest ten years of your life searching for someone and have them remain just a friend. At some point in her life, Small Lady's feelings for her Saiyan boy shifted, morphing into something else, something deeper than friendship. She loved him. She was in love with him. But she didn't even know it until that moment.

Their lips parted and she flushed with embarrassment. Gazing up at him, suddenly feeling very self conscious and vulnerable.

They hung in the air silently for one… two… three beats. Between the goggles over his eyes and the oil splashed over his face, it was near impossible for Small Lady to read his expression.

Then, "What the hell are you doing here, _Princess_?"

That voice!

One of his arms was wrapped around her waits, keeping her from falling from a very painful distance, but with his free hand he reached up to lift his oil-clouded goggles and reveal the upper-half of his face.

No! Oh, god, no!

It was the Prince.

For one horrifying moment, Small Lady's mind was frozen. At a complete and utter loss to process what had just happened. Her dual-lineaged Saiyan boy from ten years ago was really Prince Vegeta? But… but… no! But he answered to Briefs' name. That meant that it must be him… right? But, why the hell was the Prince and heir to the Empire working on the ship's engine like a low-level menial worker? There was no mistaking that voice, that face. He was defiantly Prince Vegeta XV. But was he really also her childhood friend, Briefs?

"You're Prince Vegeta!" She exclaimed.

"Yes?"

"And… you're also Briefs?"

"That is one of my names." He continued to glare at her, his summer-sky blue eyes looking cold and hard as they scrutinized her. "You still haven't answered my question, Princess. What are you doing here? I sent you back to your own kingdom."

Small Lady might have smacked him right then and there. Of all the nerve! Twice now, she saved his ass, she helped his Empire repel an enemy attack, and did he say 'thank you'? No. Not the slightest shred of gratitude! He definitely deserved a hard smack to the face. But they were both distracted as someone suddenly burst out with hysterical laughter behind her.

"I can't hold it anymore!" The Captain drifted into view, holding his sides and he continued to cackle and hoot uncontrollably. Small Lady had almost forgotten that he was there, she was so wrapped up in finally seeing her Saiyan boy again. He let go of his sides just long enough to tap his scouter before going to back hugging himself from laughter.

"Goten!" The Prince snarled. "You're responsible for this. What the hell?"

"What's going on!?" Demanded Small Lady. It felt like she had just been made the butt of some cruel joke that she didn't even understand.

"You guys tell me." Said the Captain, tapping his scouter again. "I wanna know why the Princess here has been sneaking to Earth looking for you, for who knows how long. You didn't tell me that you knew her the first time around."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Demanded the Prince. He floated down enough to let go of Small Lady without dropping her from a dangerous height, then moved away from her quickly, as if she had cooties. He floated back up to glare at the Captain. "I've never even _seen_ her before we crossed paths on the _Cutlass_. What makes you think I know her? You've been with me my whole life, don't you think you would remember if we ever met-" He cut himself off abruptly as he stared at the Captain. "Why is there a status bar on your scouter?"

"Oh… ya know…" Shrugged the Captain. "Just uploading some files to the sCloud."

The Prince's eyebrow twitched. "Files?"

"Image files." The Captain smiled evilly. "And video files. I totally was not expecting her to kiss you like that."

There was a beat of silence in which both Saiyans just stared at each other.

Then, "_Gemme that scouter_!"

The Prince rushed forward and tackled the Captain. Both men clattered to the engine room floor with a loud, "Oof!" The Captain twisted his body, shifting his weight and throwing the Prince off him. The Prince flew backwards, stopping himself in mid-air as his _ki_ flared around him. A blue jagged aura that made the air crackle and pop, and caused Small Lady's hair to stand on end.

"What's going on?" She asked, not understanding the Prince's violent reaction. She felt upset about being played a prank on, or being the butt of a joke, or whatever had just happened -she still wasn't so sure- but that was no reason to go beating up on people. Saiyans. She would never understand them.

The Captain, likewise, flared his aura. Raising himself off the floor to meet the Prince on an equal level. They exchanged blows. Punching, kicking, mirroring each others movies in a way that when one got a hit, both got a hit and when one blocked, both blocked. Even without knowing them, Small Lady could tell that they must have fought each other often for many years. Their styles and moves were so similar to one another's.

Then the Captain let loose a wave of _ki_.

The Prince could have avoided it easily, but instead he took the blast head on. Diffusing what he could and taking the rest, his arms crossed in front of his to block the worst of the damage. "Hey now!" he said. "None of that! Not while we're in here! I just spent the past six hours putting my baby back together!"

"T'ch. You started it." Argued the Captain.

"Pff. Whatever." The Prince crossed his arms over his chest.

Small Lady just stared up at them in utter confusion. She had no idea what had just happened. She came here to find her childhood friend, then he turned out to be the Prince, the next thing she knew the Prince and the Captain were fighting. Now, suddenly, everything was fine again. What the hell? "What just happened here!?"

They looked down at her, as if suddenly remembering that she was still there.

Then the Prince looked back up at the Captain. "Oh, yeah. What's she doing here, by the way?"

They both floated back down to plant their feet firmly on the floor. "Oh, well, I told you that we weren't needed anymore. Apparently, its because the Lunarian Senshi showed up to help in our place."

"Oh?" The Prince looked back with her in mild interest. Turning back to the Captain he asked, "Okay then, what's she doing _here_? On my ship."

"Your ship!? I think you're a little confused, Your Highness. The _Patriot_ is my ship!"

"T'ch, please." Scoffed the Prince. "You don't know the difference between her exhaust outlets and her atmo-feeds. And don't change the subject! What is _she_ doing _here_?" He jabbed a finger at Small Lady as if she were something offensive the Captain need apologize for.

"She was looking for you." Shrugged the Captain. "I was just helping her out."

The Prince looked back at her, confused, then turned to face the Captain again. "What could she possibly want with me?"

"See… I was kinda hoping you could tell me that." Here, the Captain gave another evil smile. "She's been looking for this boy for a while. That's why she was sneaking to Earth the day that Bowman got attacked. When she described who she was looking for, it was totally you."

The Princess stepped between them. Turning to look at the Prince, she asked, "You really don't remember me?"

Admittedly, this was an unfair question for her to ask. Small Lady hadn't recognized him as her half-Saiyan boy either. She thought he looked familiar in those first few moments when he appeared on the _Cutlass_, when he interrupted her fight with Cui. But she quickly decided that they couldn't be the same person since Briefs had been nice to her and the Prince was an insensitive jerk. But the Captain told her that his coloring was rare for dual-lineage Saiyans, and the Prince answered to the name 'Briefs'. It was irrefutable. They were one in the same.

"I've never seen you before the Bowman space port."

That cut. Did he really not remember her? Okay, so maybe it had been a long time ago. But even if Small Lady hadn't made that big of an impression on him, it was still a big night -for both of them. After all, how often did he turn into a giant ape in large civilian centers? Even if he didn't remember playing with her, he must remember getting scolded by his parents or guardian.

"Think back." She said. "You might not remember because I didn't give you my real name back then -but you didn't give me your real name either. I said I was 'Rabbit'. Don't you remember me? Rabbit… We played together until you transformed into your oozaru form. Then my Papa showed up and your guardian showed up and we went our separate ways. C'mon, you've got to remember. If not me, then at least getting yelled at for transforming in the middle of a big city."

The Prince just stared at her.

The silence dragged on for one… two… three beats.

It was the Captain who finally broke the silence. "Uh, if this was before he learned to control the oozaru state then he probably suffered some short-term memory loss. Its a common side-effect of the oozaru state in people who lack control."

"Oh." Small Lady's face fell. So, he probably had forgotten about her completely. Here she was, spending almost all of her free time over the past ten years trying to find him again, and he didn't even know who she was. Had no memory of her to speak of and worst of all… _Worst_ of all, didn't seem to care. That hurt. That hurt a lot. It was more than just disappointing. It was… it was heart-breaking.

Then the Prince asked, "When was this?"

"About ten years ago." She answered, not looking up to meet his eyes. A few seconds ago she had just come to the realization that she loved him, and now she learned that he didn't even know who she was.

"Interesting…" He said slowly.

"What is?" Both Small Lady and the Captain asked in unison.

"That's very interesting." He repeated. Then he snapped his fingers. "Goten, whip up some snacks and bring them to the informal conference room."

"I am not your butler." The Captain snapped testily.

The Prince ignored him. Instead jabbing a finger at Small Lady. "You, Princess, follow me."

"No. Why?" She didn't move.

He turned to face her and said, very seriously, his blue eyes a pragmatic shade of ice. "Because I have no memory of what happened ten years ago. So, you're going to tell me what it was you did to me that made my father so wary of Lunarians."

…


	9. Ten Years Ago

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment. Same disclaimer applies for Sailor Moon and related characters.

Space Opera

Chapter Nine: Ten Years Ago

Nappa felt uncomfortable allowing the Princess, er no, Queen -she was his Queen now- allowing the Queen to pilot the ship. Piloting was not the job of the Elite Class -er, Ruling Class, she was not a fighter. It was a Third Class job, or even something that could be delegated to a non-Saiyan servant.

But Princess- _Queen_ Bulma insisted that since it was _her own_ ship, of _her own_ design, and they were going to _her_ family's home, on _her_ native planet, that _she_ would do all the flying. The Prince- _King_! He was King now. The King warned Nappa that it was pointless to argue once she decided on something. Bulma would dig her heels in, set her teeth and refuse to give an inch. No compromises. No backing down. It was either go along with her or get out of the way! The woman was as stubborn as any Saiyan female. No wonder the Prince- _King_ had chosen her for a mate.

Nappa watched the blue sphere of Earth grow larger in the ship's -it was more of a shuttle really- in the shuttle's main bridge- cockpit, really- viewport and debated making one final offer to her Majesty to take them in for her.

The Queen must have sensed the direction his thoughts were heading, or else realized that he hadn't mentioned it for several hours now and so was overdue to fuss again. Either way, she beat him to it. "If you want to feel useful, you can go check on my son and makes sure he's sitting down and strapped in. I haven't yet smoothed out all the kinks in the landing process and I don't want him bouncing around the cabin."

Feel useful indeed! The House of Nappa had been mentors and caretakers to the Heirs of the House Vegeta since long before the Saiyan Empire even knew what Earth was, never mind since an Earth-woman became their Queen. But he offered a respectful bow to her turned back all the same, saluting the Queen with his fist over his heart, and exited the cockpit. Nappa didn't want the Prince bouncing around the shuttle either. Not because he feared the little _hansaiya_ would be hurt, but because he knew he would get an earful if the little _hansaiya_ damaged the ship in any way.

He found the Prince gazing out one of the small round porthole-style windows that lined the shuttle's port and starboard sides. His lavender tail swishing back and forth in excitement, his blue eyes wide as he gazed down at his mother's home. This would not be the first time the Prince visited the Earth, the little _hansaiya_ was actually born there. But, in his young life of only eight standard Imperial years, the Prince only set foot on the planet's surface no more than twice before. Both times, he would have been to young to remember. So, while the sight of Earth coming into view wasn't knew, it was knew to him.

Nappa sighed at having to pull the child away from his window. But he had an order to carry out. His first clear and specific order since leaving Vegeta-sei with the new Queen and her son.

New Queen… New…

That was the reason for this little excursion in the first place. The Prince -now the King- finally made his bid for power, challenging his father, defeating him, and claiming the throne as his prize. Now just came the matter of solidifying that claim. There was no more dangerous time in a King's life than the first few weeks, or even months, after his ascension to the throne. That was when other strong warriors came out of the woodwork, remembering that the throne was passed through trial by battle, and not _necessarily_ through blood relations. The new King Vegeta wanted his weak human mate and young _hansaiya_ offspring off plant and away from Vegeta-sei while he suppressed any would-be usurpers.

So, here they were, approaching Earth. Here he was, Nappa, Elite Warrior, First Class, Second Degree, Councilor to the late King Vegeta XIII, mentor to the current King Vegeta XIV, and he was babysitting. _Babysitting_! True, he was babysitting the new Heir, Prince Vegeta XV, he was looking after the new future king, dress it up however you like. But a nursemaid was still a nursemaid. He was a warrior! Sure, he was also the young Prince's mentor, just as he'd been the boy's father's mentor before him. But that was a duty limited to the training circle. It did not traditionally include field trips, vacations, bedtimes, picnics, or seat belts. Those were things for the woman to do!

The woman who was currently piloting the shuttle instead of him.

Nappa picked the Prince up by his underarms and carried him over to the nearest chair with a crash harness. "We're almost there, Your Highness." He informed the little boy, cringing inwardly at the need to state the obvious when dealing with children. "Your mother wishes you sit down and strap in."

"But I wanna watch the landing!" Protested the Prince, glaring up at the older man imperiously. Those eyes, a clear summer-sky blue, were not Saiyan eyes, the color had been inherited from his human mother. But that look. That imperious glare that demanded obedience, that was his father's look. Only eight years old and the Prince was already showing the markers of a true Saiyan King.

But he wasn't King yet and Nappa was not in the habit of indulging the whims of children. "But your mother wishes you to sit." He informed the boy. "And for now, your mother outranks you, little Prince."

He pulled the crash-harness over the young _hansaiya_'s shoulders, fastening the double straps to a third belt that went over the lap and tightening the straps to make sure they were secure and the opposing forces of Earth's gravity and the ship's internal gravity wouldn't pull him from his seat and send him tumbling through the cabin.

"Then you have to wear a seatbelt too!" The Prince commanded, crossing his arms over his chest in irritation. "Don't treat me any different just because I'm a kid! I'm an Elite warrior too!"

Well, he wasn't quite an Elite warrior yet. He was still just a pup in training who's bark was worse than his bite. But Nappa knew that was just a matter of time -time and maturity. After all, not only was he a _hansaiya_, a half-Saiyan half-human hybrid and therefore had a greater potential for power, but he was also the King's son. A direct male-line decedent of the Legendary. Given enough time and the proper training, the little Prince could be more than _just_ an Elite. The late King Vegeta XIII theorized that the _hansaiya_ might produce the next Legendary, and the current King was confident that it would be his son!

And Nappa was the boy's mentor. He would be mentor to the second coming of the Legendary!

But not yet. RIght now, the Prince was just a pint-sized purple prat.

Nappa weighed his options. Sit down in the seat next to his charge and strap the crash harness on, or else go back into the cockpit with the Queen, sit down and strap a crash harness around himself there. Neither option allowed him to do anything useful. Both options required him to sit and do nothing. The question then became, who's company could he put up with most easily? The Queen, he knew, would mostly ignore him, being to focused on landing seven-hundred metric tons of space-fairing metal on the landing pad constructed specifically for her ship on the Capsule Corp compound. But at the same time, the Queen's piloting skills were notorious and infamous through out the Fleet as being -in a word- 'death-defying'. Did he really want a front row seat for that?

Sighing, Nappa chose the one that, while still trying to his nerves, would take fewer years off his life. He sat down in the seat next to the Prince, maneuvering his bulky body into the average human sized seat, and strapped his own crash harness around himself. He was the boy's mentor, so Nappa told himself he was leading by example rather than giving into the child's whims. "Your mother wouldn't want me bouncing around the ship either."

…

The shuttle landed in a private cradle-type hangar located on the Capsule Corporation compound and the Prince could not get off the ship and out into the fresh air fast enough.

His grandparents met them at the hangar door. They both gave his mother great big hugs and commented on how well she looked. To the Prince, his grandmother bent down and pinched his cheeks, remarking on how tall he was getting and how handsome he looked. His grandfather picked him up, settling the Prince on his hip and carried the boy as they all went inside.

The adults all sat around the kitchen table, except for Nappa who leaned against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest. The Prince wriggled out of his grandfather's hold and trotted over to mimic his mentor. Leaning against the lower cupboards and crossing his arms over his chest. His grandmother seemed to think this was very cute and rushed to get a camera before either of them thought to move. Nappa scowled at her, his glare deepening with every click of the shutter, but he said nothing. The Prince, on the other hand, loved the attention. It was nice to be showered with praise for doing practically nothing and not having to work for even the slightest bit of approval, let alone complements and praise.

When Grammy was done with her photo-shoot, she sat back down at the kitchen table and talk quickly turned to the Prince's father and his new ascension to the throne and he quickly grew board.

They were all talking quietly and soberly, as if something terrible had happened. Grandfather King Vegeta told him Earthlings couldn't understand some Saiyan traditions, not even his mother whom had lived on Vegeta-sei for many years now. The Prince knew that for his father to become the next King, he had to challenge Grandfather King Vegeta to a fight and he had to win. After he won, he couldn't have the old King still running around the Empire, so Papa ended his life. Grandfather said it was an honorable way to die, and that he would be happy because it meant he was leaving the Empire in the care of someone strong. There was no reason for Mama to be a quiet and somber. It wasn't like one of her spaceships was destroyed.

The Prince wanted to go outside and play.

On Vegeta-sei a great majority of his time was spent in the training circle with Nappa. Occasionally, Papa would join them and those were rare and wonderful times when he got to actually spar with his father. But when not in training or being tested by his father, the Prince's life was very dull. Beyond combat training, he spent long evenings being tutored in mathematics, physics, economics, history, military strategy, and political theory. When not sparring with Nappa or at the mercy of dry scholars, he learned engineering, mechanics, and programming from his mother. All of that left absolutely no time to play with other boys his own age. …Not that there were many other eight-year-olds running around the Imperial Palace for him to play with.

But here on Earth, here in West City there had to be lots of kids his own age!

He wanted to go out and play. When were the grown-ups gonna finish their boring and stupid talking so he could go outside? The Prince waited a little bit longer until his patients finally gave out and he walked back up for his mother. Tugging on the sleeve of her sweatshirt, he said, "I wanna go outside."

"In a minute, honey." She said, prying his much stronger fingers out of the material of her sleeve.

The Prince glared up at her. For now, she outranked him, Nappa said. She would continue to outrank him until he came of age. The little Prince brushed his hair out of his face and huffed in annoyance. His parents -and sometimes Nappa- were the only people in the Empire who didn't jump at his commands. They were the only one who could override his commands. They were the only ones that could deny his demands. The Prince crossed his arms over his chest in indignation. It wasn't like he was asking to skip training. Tomorrow he would enter the training circle with Nappa first thing in the morning before the sun rose, just like he did every day back on Vegeta-sei. Was it really so much to ask to go outside and find some kids his own age to play with before bed?

Maybe if he tried again. "Mama, I wanna go outside and play."

"Not right now, Vegeta-chan." She used his Saiyan name because Nappa was there. Mama said that 'Trunks' was supposed to be a secret name, only her, Papa, Grammy, Gramps, and Grandfather were supposed to know it.

"But I wanna find some other kids to play with!" He insisted. His mother was always telling his father that humans needed other kids to play with. He overheard them several times. Something called '_social development_' -whatever that was. Papa said Saiyans didn't need such things. It was a human weakness. Maybe it was. The Prince didn't want to be weak. But at the same time, he also didn't want to spend all his time with Mama, and tutors, and Nappa. Training was exciting, and machines were fun, but books were a slow torture. He wanted to see what it was like to spend time with people his own age just once. Even if it did make his father mad. Lots of things made Papa mad. Really, there wasn't much point in worrying over it.

The Queen sighed, looking up from her son to his mentor, she said, "Nappa, would you mind taking Vegeta-chan out to the park for a couple of hours? There's a public park a few block down 8th street."

"Of course, Your Majesty." He gave a shallow bow and the Prince could see his mentor was not happy about the task.

"And change into some civilian clothes, please." She added. "A warrior in full armor walking around town tends to make people nervous."

…

So, that was what lead the Prince to the sandbox in the public part. Nappa standing on the edge of the sandbox, his large form still managing to look out of place even with the normal Earthling clothing. Or maybe it was the fact that he was wearing a full suit and tie in a public park. Or maybe it was the scouter he still wore over his ear, because he refused to go anywhere without it.

But whatever. The Prince didn't care about Nappa. He was finally in a place to find kids his own age to play with.

…And he had already found some.

The game was called 'King of the Mountain' -a fitting game for a Prince, he thought. The 'mountain' was the top of the slide. There were two ways to get to the top, up the slide and up the ladder. Whoever was at the top was the 'King'. The objective of the game was to stay at the top while other kids tried to pull you off or push you down the slide. The longer you stayed at the top, the longer you were the King. Basically, it was a war game. That was something the Prince knew well.

He strode put to the slide with bold conference. He could dethrone the kid at the top easily.

Brushed past two other kids, the Prince climbed the stairs slowly. There was another boy climbing up the slide on the other side, the current King of the Mountain's attention was focussed on the one on the slide, he wouldn't notice Trunks until it was to late. That is, he wouldn't have if it wasn't for the two kids he squeezed past.

A girl and boy. They both let out loud exclamations of "Hey!"

"No pushing!" Said the girl.

"What's your problem?" Asked the boy.

The Prince turned around to glare at them. No one talked like that to him, he was the _Prince_! The Heir to his Grandfather's Empire. A direct male-line decedent of the Legendary. No one dared disrespect him, except his father.

"Who do you think you are?" The girl asked.

"Prince Vegeta." He said flatly. It should have been obvious by the lavender tail. But then, he'd noticed that some people failed to recognize a Saiyan out of armor, even if their tail was perfectly visible.

The two children blinked at him for a moment or two. …Then burst out laughing.

"Yeah right!" The boy scoffed.

The Prince was not pleased by their skepticism and mocking tones. "I am Prince Vegeta!"

"If you're Prince Vegeta, then what are you doing here?" The girl asked. "Why aren't you in a big castle somewhere with a bunch of servants and stuff?"

"I'm visiting my mother's estate." The Prince explained, not liking the fact that he was having to explain himself to these two. The Prince of the Saiyans did not explain himself. The Prince was above such things! Or, at least, the Prince should be. If only plebeian idiots like these didn't question him.

"Pff. Yeah right." The boy said again. "You're not Prince Vegeta. You're a liar."

Now the Prince was mad. He told them who he was and not only were they questioning his claim, but also choosing not to believe what he told them. Now they flat out called him a liar. That was the last straw. He had to teach these worms the proper respect!

Flaring his _ki_, the Prince levitated a few inches into the air. Uncoiling his lavender tail from around his wait and waggling it in their faces. Even idiots like them should know that Prince Vegeta XV was the only Saiyan with a lavender tail. He gathered his _ki _into one hand. At least, in the last seconds before they died, they would know who it was who killed them and why. "I am so Prince Vegeta." He said. "And you just called your Prince a liar. Make peace with your-"

He was cut off rather abruptly by a large hand closing around his tail and squeezing _hard_.

The Prince collapsed to the ground, as the sensitive nerve was pinched, paralyzing him instantly. The tail could be a Saiyans greatest strength during a full moon. But any other time it was their greatest weakness. That was why all Saiyan warriors were taught from a very early age to always wrap it around their waists where it would be held tight to their bodies and harder for an enemy to grab.

The Prince glared up at Nappa. His mentor holding firmly to the lavender tail as he asked, "What in the name of Yasai is going on here?"

"Let go of me, Nappa!" The Prince snapped. "And don't interfere!"

To the Prince's greater vexation, Nappa did not let go of his tail. Instead, he turned his attention to the other two children and repeated. "What's going on here?"

The children shivered and hugged each other, startled and slightly afraid. Nappa was big, even for a grown-up, and he was giving his full and critical attention to two human children whom had probably never seen a real Saiyan before, let alone been faced with a scolding from one.

"He- he said he was Prince Vegeta." The girl answered. "We didn't believe him and then he- he flew and made his hand glow. Is he- is he really a Saiyan? I thought all Saiyans had black hair. He can't really be Prince Vegeta! He-"

"I _am_ Prince Vegeta!"

The girl began to cry. The for the first time the boy began to _look_ scared.

Nappa sighed. Still holing onto the Prince's tail, he grabbed the collar of his shirt with the other hand and hoisted the boy up onto this shoulder, carrying him like a sack of rice. "Come along, Your Highness." He said. "I think you've had enough '_social development_' for one day."

The other children could only stare as Nappa, still holding the Prince, jumped into the air and flew away.

…

"Forgive me for speaking out of turn, Your Majesty, but the Prince cannot 'play' with normal humans. They are to weak. He would destroy them in a moment."

The Prince crouched just outside the sitting room, concealed behind the wall that separated the room from the corridor. He was pretty sure this was one of those conversations about him that he wasn't actually supposed to be listening to, so he stayed hidden. If someone discovered him, he would say he was practicing the stealth techniques Nappa had only just started teaching him.

"Well, then you should be teaching him how to control himself." Bulma snapped back. "My son may be a Saiyan Prince, but he's also just a kid, and kids need to _play_!"

Watching from the hallway, the Prince saw Nappa open his mouth to say something, then quickly closed it again. His mother was the Queen now and while Nappa was a trusted confidant of the Royal Family, he could not directly appose them. At least, not without suffering severe punishment for insubordination from his father once they got back to Vegeta-sei. The Prince smiled, his mother was on his side, which meant he could still go outside and play again and there was nothing Nappa could say against it.

The Queen sighed. "Tomorrow I'll call Chichi. Her younger son it about Vegeta-chan's age. Maybe they can play together."

Nappa tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Chichi… I don't recognize the name, but if her brat is a _hansaiya_ like the Prince, it would be a wise decision. It would also be nice for the Prince to have a sparing partner his own age. It would also help me measure his progress against one of his own kind. I think the King would approve."

Placing her hands on her hips, the Queen gave a huff. "Honestly, you Saiyans. All you can ever think about is fighting and training to fight. Its a wonder Vegeta ever managed to find the time to make a son with me in the first place."

Tactfully, Nappa said nothing to that comment. Instead, he gave a bow of respect, saluting with his fist over his heart and exited the sitting room. That was the Prince's cue to leave as well. Not wanting to be caught eavesdropping on the grown-ups. He was gonna get a playmate his own age! That was all that mattered.

…

Chichi loved the idea of letting the boys play together. There weren't very many _hansaiya_ around their age and so while the Prince was on Earth, it would be beneficial to both boys to spend time together. Goten, apparently, had trouble playing with normal children do to his Saiyan strength and often had to spend recess confined to the classroom with the teacher rather than outside where he could inadvertently injure one of his classmates.

The only drawback was that it was the middle of the week and Chichi didn't want her young son up late on a school night. So, the playdate with the Prince would have to wait until the weekend.

The Prince hated waiting.

He didn't know who this 'Goten' was. He'd never heard of him before. But if he could play with him, then he wanted to play with him _now_. He didn't want to wait three days until the weekend. But, his mother out-ranked him and his mother told him to respect Chichi's wishes and wait. Hmph! No one told his father to wait! But the Prince didn't have any choice, so, for the first day at least, he behaved himself and waited. He went an entire twenty-four hours without pestering his mother, grandparents, or Nappa about going to Mount Paozu to meet Goten.

But by the second day, his patience was already wearing thin and the nagging began.

He whined during training excursuses with Nappa. He continuously asked his mother how much longer when looking over circuitry in her lab. He even asked his Grammy if she could show him on a map where on Earth Mount Paozu was so he could just fly there himself. That little inquiry got him a time out and a lecture on patience and respect. Just because he had private tutors and his schedule was relatively fluid because of it did not mean that he could go bothering other people in their daily lives. Goten went to public school, and so lived around the school's schedule.

By the third day, the Prince had no patience left to speak of.

He gritted his teeth through training exercises with Nappa, then after lunch excused himself from the table, saying he wanted to try wrangling some of the dinosaurs in the terrarium. Grammy reminded him not to hurt the poor dears. They might be ten times his size, but he was far more likely to hurt them than they were to hurt him, so be nice. (The Prince had already broken one of the pterodactyl's teeth the last time he tried roughhousing with them.) He promised Grammy he would be gentle and play nice as he left the table, heading in the general direction of the terrarium.

But the moment he was out of sight, the Prince changed direction, heading away from the terrarium and out of the building. Jumping over the wall, he slunk off of and away from the Capsule Corporation property.

Following the same path he and Nappa had flown a few days prior, the Prince found the same park. This time, he did not head to the slide, however. He didn't see the same children there from before there, but he decided that the slide -and by extension, everything else in the sandbox- was beneath him. He was a Prince, after all. A direct male-line descendant of the Legendary. He did not compete with commoners over climbing equipment.

Instead, he turned towards the ball courts where the bigger kids played.

There were two games going on at the time. One basketball match, three-on-three, full court match. The other, a handball match on the far court, using the side of a building and ignoring the lines that had actually been painted for basketball. The Prince he would not interrupt a game. It was best to start a fresh match. For that he'd have to wait.

The Prince hated waiting.

He cast his eyes around, searching for someone whom was likewise unengaged. Perhaps they could start a game of their own without having to wait for the others to finish. There was a third court free. What were the rules of this game again? Was this the one where you had to get the ball in the hoop without using your hands or feet? No, that couldn't be right because the kids paling the three-on-three match were using their hands. Then, was this the one where the losers were sacrificed to their gods? Hm. The Prince was certain he could kill his shamed and defeated opponents after he won the match, but he didn't know the proper rituals to make his kills an offering. His tutors didn't teach him useless things like that at the Imperial Palace. Maybe it would be safer not to kill them after he won. That would work out better anyway, because then he could play with them again some time.

Of course, that was assuming he found anyone to play with at all.

Those big kids not involved in the games seemed to be otherwise engaged talking to other big kids and not interested in playing.

Maybe his father was right. Maybe he didn't need '_social development_' like the humans did. After all, he was having a hard enough time just _finding_ someone to play with. Who would have thought playing like the human children did would be so _difficult_!?

He was about ready to give up and go back to his mother's home when he saw a girl a little younger than himself, sitting alone. Under a tree on the lawn, not far from the ball courts, but not close enough to imply that she was waiting to play. She did, however, have a ball of her own. A large black ball with wide cat-like eyes painted on it. It had cat-like ears to, which was weird since it was a ball. Balls were supposed to be smooth, perfect spheres. They weren't supposed to have ears, or whiskers, or antenna. It would inter fear their their ability to roll, or bounce, or do whatever it was the game required you to do with a ball.

The Prince was curious.

Turing away from the ball courts, he trotted across the lawn to the girl. She looked younger than him, but not by much, maybe only two years. Wearing an all blue sailor-style school uniform and black mary-jane shoes. Her bright pink hair was pulled up into two oddly shaped buns. Round, but also pointed at the top, with the rest of her thick pink hair fluffing out to frame her face. It gave the odd illusion that she had rabbit ears.

The Prince paused when she turned in his direction, wondering what to say. He had already resolved _not_ to tell her that he was Prince Vegeta. It had not impressed the other children from the other day and he had a feeling that it would be much the same no matter who he was talking to. So, no telling anyone that he was the Prince. But he couldn't use the name Trunks, either. It was a secret name that only his parents (and grandparents) were allowed to know. Maybe… he could use his Gramps' name?

The girl, however, saved him the trouble of wondering how to introduce himself. She spoke first. "Hi."

...

"Hi." The boy replied awkwardly, as if unsure what to say. He looked to be maybe a year or two older than Small Lady, with short lavender hair she thought looked very pretty. She wouldn't tell him that, however, boys seemed to get upset whenever they were called 'pretty'. Wearing denim overalls over a lime green T-shirt and sneakers. …And for some reason, a fluffy belt or sash around his waist that was the same shade of lavender as his hair.

"Are you here alone too?" She asked, hugging Luna-P to her chest.

Small Lady was feeling an odd mingling of shy boldness. Shy because she was in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by unfamiliar people, but bold because she finally did something she'd been thinking of doing for some time now -run away from home. Nobody at home really wanted her there, anyway. Her Mama and Papa never seemed to have time for her, the Senshi thought she was a nuisance, always telling her to keep out of the way and not get underfoot. Her only real friend was Plu. But Plu was stuck guarding her Door and couldn't leave it to play with Small Lady, not even for a moment. So, she here she was. She ran away to Earth, her father's former planet before he married her mother.

"Yeah." The boy replied, his awkwardness seeming to relax slightly.

She smiled at him, shifting Luna-P to one arm, Small Lady extended her now free hand for him to shake. "I'm Us-" She cut herself off rather abruptly, not wanting to risk anyone finding her -not that she thought they would even be looking- it was probably best not to five her real name. "Uh…Rabbit. Wanna play?"

"Rabbit." He said, taking her hand and giving it one quick shake. "I'm… Briefs."

Small Lady couldn't help the very unladylike snort that escaped her. "Briefs? That's a funny name! Doesn't that mean underwear?"

Briefs was suddenly incensed. "Yeah, well you're name's Rabbit! What kind of a name is that?"

"Rabbits are cute!" She defended.

"T'ch, whatever." Briefs scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest imperiously. Jeez, the attitude. But maybe it was a little deserved, after all, Small Lady didn't really have to call him underwear. Didn't they always say to treat people nicely and they'll treat you nicely. She was mean first. So, his snippiness was understandable. But Briefs seemed to let it go rather quickly, pointing instead to Luna-P, he asked, "What's that?"

Small Lady smiled, glad to move past the little bump in their meeting. "This is Luna-P."

"Does it do anything?" He asked.

"Watch this." She smiled. She threw the Luna-P into the air and shouted, "_Transform_!"

There was a _poof_ sound and small puff of white mist that accompanied all of Luna-P's transformations, and when she came back down again, the cat-faced ball was replaced by a bright pink umbrella. Small Lady caught it, opening the umbrella with a loutish and smiled at Briefs.

His blue eyes widened with interest. "Cool! So, is it like a Hoi Poi capsule?"

"I don't know what that is." She informed him truthfully. They had nothing by that name in Silver Millennium. She didn't know what Hoi Poi capsules were or what they did. "But she can do more." And Small Lady threw the umbrella into the air, once again shouting, "_Transform_!"

Another _poof_, another puff, and this time when Luna-P came down, she was a mirror.

Briefs leaned over, scrutinizing his reflection in the mirror. "Can it turn into anything not-girly?"

"'Not girly'?" Small Lady repeated, feeling insulted. She thought the things that Luna-P turned into were cute -and useful too. But then, he didn't know the special things that could be done with a Luna-P mirror or umbrella. Boys didn't usually like to play with mirrors anyway. Boys played with bugs, or in mud, or other such dirty things that Small Lady had no fast for. But maybe they could compromise. "What do you mean?"

"Like a sword." Briefs supplied. "Or a spear or something. Ya know, something you can fight with."

She blinked back at him. "'Something you can fight with'? But, you can fight with umbrellas and mirrors."

Briefs scoffed. "How would you use them in a fight?"

"Oh, well…" In truth, Small Lady had never tried before. Not with umbrellas or mirrors specifically. But Neptune used her mirror all the time. It couldn't be all that difficult if she used it that often. So, she said, "I'll show you! Um, what should I aim at?"

Briefs cast his eyes about the park. It was late afternoon, most of the kids their own age were being dragged off by their parents for home and dinner, then bed. The older kids were still playing on the ball courts. Taking Small Lady by the hand, he pulled her away from the big kids and over to the sandbox. Someone had constructed a sorry excuse of a 'sand castle' there. It was little more than a large pile of sand with a flag made of a juice straw and candy wrapper. But it had long since been abandoned by its architects. It would do.

Pointing at the pile of sand, he said, "This will be your opponent."

That was rather dramatic phrasing, calling it an 'opponent' instead of a 'target'. It wasn't like the sandcastle was gonna suddenly jump up and bite her back. But she nodded, "Okay." anyway.

Holding up the Luna-P mirror with the reflective glass facing the mound, she waited for the words to come to her. That was how her mother explained it to her. Back when she was Sailor Moon, whenever she received a new weapon, the words and knowledge of how to use it came to her naturally. It was the same thing with the other Senshi. Nobody _taught_ Mercury the Aqua Rhapsody, or Mars the Burning Mandala. They just _knew_ them. But nothing came to Small Lady's mind. Fearing Briefs would become impatient if she took to long, she said the first thing she could think of that seemed applicable.

"_Moon Reflection_!"

Nothing happened.

In all honesty, Small Lady hadn't expected anything to happen, but she was still embarrassed. Especially when Briefs crossed his arms in disappointment and scoffed.

She turned to him, defensive. "Oh yeah! Well, lets see _you _do something cool then!"

"Fine." He nodded imperiously. "Move."

He faced the mound, back strait but shoulders relaxed, and exhaled. At first, Small Lady had no idea what he was doing, standing and breathing was even less cool than her failed attempt at using a magic mirror. Then, Briefs raised one hand and it was now glowing with a oddly mesmerizing blue light. He didn't say anything, not magic saying, no power words, he just exhaled louder with a sharp "Ha!" and the light shot from his hand strait at the pile of sand and blew it up like a firework.

Small Lady shielded her eyes to keep falling sand and molten glass out of them. But the moment the debris stopped falling, she clapped her hands happily. "That was so cool, Briefs! I didn't know you could do stuff like that! And you didn't even have to call out any power words to do it. Do more! Do more!"

He smiled at her, apparently pleased that he had managed to impress her. "Lets build another target. A bigger one this time."

"Okay!"

They both got on their knees in the sandbox, a bit of a ways away from the crater of his first blast, and began piling sand on top of sand. Briefs didn't care much what it looked like, he was going to blow it up anyway, he just wanted it to be big enough to be impressive. But Small Lady insisted on smoothing out the sides, and sculpted the base to look like it had been built instead of piled. When it was big enough, she also added a new flag on top. A stick and a leaf.

"All done~!" She smiled.

"Stand back."

This time, he used two separate blasts of equal strength. One from each hand. Releasing the balls of blue light at the same moment and curving the waves around so that they hit the castle on opposite sides. This caused the sand to splash up in a sort of fan pattern. The intensity of his ki melted the sand, turning it to glass and when his power was diffused, it cooled enough to stay in its fan-like shape.

"Wow, how pretty!" Small Lady was impressed. She walked up to the glassy sand-monolith, her ruby eyes wide with interest. She ran a hand over the jagged edge… and instantly regretted it. It might be pretty and glassy, but it was by no means smooth and she cut herself. A tiny splinter-shard breaking off in the pad of her finger. Suddenly, she didn't like the giant glass fan anymore. "Ouch! It cut me!"

"Idiot." Briefs just shook his head as he closed the small distance between them. He took her now bleeding hand in his. "What did you expect to happen? You humans are so weak, even something as simple as a shard of glass can hurt you."

He lowered his mouth to the cut and sucked. He wasn't sucking her blood -although, there was that too- he was trying to suck out the tiny splinter-like shard that had cut her and gotten stuck in her finger. Trying to squeeze it out by pinching or pull it out with their nails could cause more damage.

Small Lady flushed at the action. Minus the fact that she was slightly bleeding and in pain, the moment almost felt like a Prince kissing her hand. She tried to hide her blush behind bravado. "Oh-oh yeah! Well, what are you then? If you're not human!"

Briefs lifted his lips from her hand and spit out the shard. Wiping his mouth with the back of his own hand, he said, "I'm a Saiyan. Duh! See my tail?"

That fuzzy lavender belt of his suddenly uncoiled itself from around Briefs' waist and waggled in front of Small Lady's face. Then, it withdrew, once again wrapping itself firmly around his waist where she was sure that she'd never be able to grab it even if she tried.

"Oh my gosh! _You have a tail_!"

"'Course I have a tail. All Saiyans have tails." He informed her as if this was information she should have already known.

Small Lady did not know that. She was only vaguely aware of what Saiyans were. They were supposed to be these really strong warrior guys that had a big Empire and flew around space bullying other planets and people. …Right? But Briefs didn't seem anything like that. In fact, he didn't resemble anything like what Small Lady thought a Saiyan was. Learn something new every day, as the saying goes. So, all Saiyans had tails, huh.

"Its so cute!" She decided. "Can I pet it?"

"No." One flat, even syllable that left no room for argument.

"Aw, but why not?" Small Lady pouted, hoping to change his mind. It was so cute! Long and slender and covered in soft-looking lavender fur. She bet it would feel really good in her hands. And besides, didn't things with fur like being pet anyways? Luna, Artemis and Diana loved it when she stroked their fur! Or maybe Saiyans didn't like being treated like pets or animals in general. Did she just inadvertently insult him?

Briefs didn't answer her question. Instead he asked, "Do you wanna see me blow stuff up or not?"

"Okay…"

They passed some time like that. Both of them working together to pile on enough sand to make a good show, then Small Lady would stand back while Briefs blasted it. He showed her all the different techniques he was learning. Wide hitting waves, strait cutting beams, delayed attacks, rapid-fire attacks, etc. It got to the point where there was more glass and glass-dust in the sandbox then there was sand. At that point, Small Lady stopped helping pile the sand, she didn't want to cut herself again.

The late afternoon had turned to evening and the sun was dipping down low over the mountains, the moon just beginning to peak out from behind the cityscape. It was that lovely twilight time when the sky was a glorious shade of fiery orange and red that slowly faded to violet, blue and black as your eyes traveled from sunset to moonrise.

Small Lady watched Briefs pile on the shards of glass that were formerly sand. It wasn't a very pretty kind of glass. Certainly nothing that would be sold in a store. Foggy, slightly dirty looking with bubbles and other imperfections in them. But they reflected the light of the setting sun prettily and sort of reminded Rabbit of the crystal buildings of her home. She carefully -very carefully- picked up a large shard and held it up to her eyes for inspection.

"This reminds me a little of what we make buildings out of where I'm from." She said.

Briefs looked up from his nearly completed pile of glass and blinked at her curiously. Small Lady realized her mistake instantly. There probably wasn't anywhere on Earth where they made buildings out of glass or crystal. She didn't know much about the Saiyan Empire, but by the confused look that he was giving her, there wasn't anyplace that Briefs knew about that used crystal as a major construction material. Probably, most races didn't know how. It wasn't like metal or stone.

"Where are you from?" He asked.

Well, it looked like the jig was up. She supped she could lie and make up a place. But she didn't have to skill for something so elaborate, especially not so suddenly like this. She should have thought of something ahead of time. The moon had risen over the buildings now and was clearly visible over he tops of the skyscrapers. Small Lady lifted one hand and pointed to it. "There."

Briefs folioed her finger, loping directing into the glow of the full moon.

Then he began to change.

The moon filled his vision. Large, and round, and full. Small Lady could see it reflected clearly in his wide eyes, as if he were unable to look away. Then the change started.

A slight tingling behind his eyes that traveled down his spine to the base of his tail. At his tail the feeling changed. The tingling shifting to a tremor that resonated through his whole body, paralyzing him where he stood. He tried to fight the transformation, after all, his mother would be so mad if he smash-up her city. But this only caused him to shake violently which just made the transformation feeling worse. Fur sprouted on his face and down his neck. His hands grew larger. HIs feet burst from his sneakers. His whole body grew immeasurably fast, his clothing ripping under the strain and falling in tatters back to the ground.

"B-Briefs!?" Small Lady screamed, not understanding what had just happened. "What's going on!?"

But he didn't answer. He wasn't 'Briefs' anymore. Now he was a giant purple furred ape!

Small Lady had never seen a Yoma before. She'd only ever just heard boy them from her Mama and Mama's Senshi.

They were supposed to be people that were turned into beasts by negative energy. Small Lady didn't sense any negativity anywhere, but there was no other way to explain Briefs' sudden transformation into a monster. A giant monkey monster!

She didn't know what to do. She wasn't a Senshi. She had not Crystal Power. Not yet. Her Mama and Papa promised her she's awaken one day, but not any time soon. But not right now and right now was when she needed it, to help Briefs. Even if she couldn't transform, though, she still had to do something! She couldn't let him destroy the city!

Not able to do anything else, Small Lady grabbed Luna-P, throwing her up into the air she once again shouted, "Transform!" and when the cat-faced toy came down again, she wasn't a ball but an umbrella. Maybe she could hypnotize him into not hurting anyone. She just needed to get to a high enough place that she could twirl her umbrella level with his eyes. But they were in a park and the highest things around where trees and climbing equipment, and they only came up to around the giant ape's belly. What was she going to do?

Small Lady had to run and hop quickly to avoid betting stepped on by his massive purple foot. He smashed the playground equipment and ground the glass of the sandbox into a fine sparkly powder without even seeming to even notice.

"Briefs! Look over here!" She shouted, holding up her magical Luna-P umbrella and twirling it quickly. But whether he didn't notice her or just couldn't hear her from his hight, the monster-monkey didn't look down. He just continued to thrash the park and make his menacing way slowly to the building-line of the city proper. She couldn't let him reach the city! He'd turn it to dust just like he did the playground!

Throwing her umbrella into the air, she once again transformed her Luna-P. The hypnosis idea wasn't working, it was time to try something else. This time, Luna-P became a large folding fan, almost as bit as Small Lady was, but it was light and easy to wield. Taking it in both hands, she swung the fan in a wide arch, creating a strong gust of magic wind that knocked the giant ape off his feet. Yes!

That got his attention. The monkey monster noticed her now. Looked right at her with a feral aggression that would have frozen the blood of a normal man. He climbed back to his feet and Small Lady quickly realized that maybe tackling an oversized gorilla monster wasn't the wisest course of action. At least not without backup. So, she did the only thing that seemed feasible in that moment. She ran. She ran like hell! Dodging and jumping from side to side, running in a zig-zag pattern to keep from being squished under his massive monkey feet.

This was scary. Small Lady heard the stories from her Mama, but she'd never actually fought a Yoma or other monster before.

She began to cry.

That was when she was saved. A red rose came sailing through the air. It streaked past her ear and impaled itself into the ape-monster's ankle. He went down instantly, howling in pain. Small Lady followed the path of the rose to see where it had come from, though she already knew he answer. Releaf flooded her whole being when she saw her Papa perched atop a bent lamppost, his dark cape fluttering in the slight breeze.

"The full moon might bring out the Beast in some," he said, "but i, Tuxedo Mask, will protect Small Beauties from their evil paws!"

"Papa!" Small Lady exclaimed.

He jumped down from his perch and wrapped her in his arms, lifting her up, he rested most of her weight on his hip. "Are you alright, my Small Lady?"

She had already been crying before he saved her, but that was from desperation. Now, she cried even harder. Because that was her friend laying on the ground and she had no idea how to help him. "Briefs!" She sobbed into her Papa's shoulder. "Papa, you have to do something to help Briefs. Somehow he turned into a Yoma! He was my friend and I don't know what to do!"

"A Yoma?" Endymion blinked at the little girl in his arms before turning his attention to the lavender weremonkey he had just subdued. "He's not a Yoma, Small Lady, just a Saiyan. Saiyans transform into apes when they look at the moon."

Small Lady looked up at her father, hopeful. "Like a werewolf?"

Endymion nodded.

"So, he'll be okay then? He'll turn back when the sun comes up?"

Again, the King nodded.

"Thank goodness!" She hugged her Papa tighter. This time, her tears were sobs of relief.

"But," continued Endymion, "we can't just leave him here like this. He might still hurt people in the city when he pulls my rose out."

Small Lady nodded. She may not be a Senshi yet. But she was still a protector of Love and Justice. She couldn't leave a monster loose in a city of innocent people, and she couldn't leave a friend in this state. "What should we do?"

"_You will do nothing_!"

Both Princess and King looked up in the sky, following the sound of the new voice. A man hovered there. A large man, wearing full armor. His head was completely baled, around his waits was wrapped a brown fuzzy tail -like Briefs' only a different color- and over his eyes he wore a rose-colored visor. Another Saiyan.

The large man landed mere inches from King Endymion, whom tightened his hold on his six-year-old daughter. The Saiyan reached out and grabbed the other man's lapel and remanded, "What did you do to him!?"

He was big and mean-looking. One of his large hands was about the size of Small Lady's head, his arm practically bursting with muscle. He could probably crush her father with just a flick of his wrist if he wanted to. Small Lady began to cry again.

But Endymion didn't balk. He met the Saiyan's eyes, glare for glare. "I only stunned him is all, Saiyan-san. He will be fine. Perhaps you should teach your son not to go out on a full moon and keep this from happening again."

"I am not his father." The man growled.

"Your charge, then." Endymion shrugged. "I was protecting my daughter. If you had been more vigilant in your duty as the boy's guardian, then maybe this wouldn't have happened."

The Saiyan did not look amused. He glared through his visor at the Moon King and Small Lady once again feared that he might snap her father in half. "You're Lunarian, aren't you." He said after a prolonged pause. "Mark my words, moon-brain, when the sun rises, if anything is found to be wrong with the brat or his soft-hearted human mother refuses to stop worrying, then my King will raise your little kingdom to the ground!"

"The boy will be just fine." Endymion smiled. "Although, I wonder if your King cares this much for all half-Saiyans or if this one is special. If he had hurt my daughter, our kingdom would erase your Empire from this galaxy, but we wouldn't go through the trouble for just any child in Silver Millennium. What makes this boy so special?"

The larger man snarled. "Get off our planet, Lunarian! Before I crush you and your spawn like the worms you are!"

There was nothing else to be done. The threat that Briefs in his weremonkey form presented had been neutralized and he was back in the hands of his caretaker. So, they left. King Endymion carrying Small Lady home in his arms. It had been a busy night, at this point, she didn't know why she was crying anymore. Just that her father carried her home in tears.

Clutching the material of his waistcoat, burying her face in his cravat, she whispered between sobs, "Will he really be okay, Papa?"

Endymion looked down at his daughter, regarding her for a moment before assuring her, "Yes, my Small Lady, your friend will be fine."

She nodded. But that didn't stop the tears. "I should apologize to him. He didn't tell me where he lives. I'll have to find him."

…


	10. Ancient Grudges & Current Threats

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment. Same disclaimer applies for Sailor Moon and related characters.

Space Opera

Chapter Ten: Ancient Grudges & Current Threats

"How do you know about the parts you weren't there for?" Goten asked as he reached for a chip.

He had returned from his snack-run at about half-way through the Princess' story of how she and Trunks supposedly knew each other. Childhood friends. Met even before he and Trunks had been introduced. Then were separated for ten years only to be reunited by chance. It was the sort of story Goten expected to read in one of his sister-in-law's cheap romance novels. Stuff like that wasn't supposed to happen in real life.

"That's not important right now." Trunks waved off his question. Turning his attention back to the Lunarian Princess, he said, "That doesn't really explain what I wanted to know."

The Princess looked slightly confused. "Why your father would be wary of Senshi?" she asked. "I don't know. You saw how I fight on the _Cutlass_, are _you_ afraid of me?"

The answer to that was 'Yes'. Trunks had confided as much in Goten. Not in so many words, but he found their lack of _ki_ disconcerting. True, a warrior's skill and prowess was not always proportional to their battle aura. Sometimes fighters with weaker _ki _could defeat stronger opponents by acting smarter, using diversionary tactics to distract an enemy while you exploit their weakness. Inversely, a strong fighter might lose to a weaker one if he is clumsy, careless, or overconfident. Brains were just as important in battle as brawn was. But neither Trunks nor Goten could think of a case where a soldier with _no_ discernible _ki _managed to take down a warrior of rank. The fact that Sailor Senshi could fight without _ki _meant they could move almost invisible. A Saiyan warrior would be unable to predict their moves and anticipate their strikes. It would be like fighting blind.

So, yes, Trunks was wary of the Lunarian Princess. Goten didn't really have any serious reservations about her. Sure, the nature of her power could _represent_ a possible danger, but her herself? Nah. She wasn't a threat. For all her attitude and sass -qualities that reminded Goten greatly of Trunks himself- there was also an earnestness about her, a sort of innocent boldness that kinda reminded Goten of his dad -when he was actually alive and, ya know, _around_, that is. He might even go so far as to call her a Pure Heart -not that he was an expert or anything. But she definitely wasn't dangerous. In fact, she might actually be good for Trunks. She could empathize with him in ways that Goten could not -both being from royal houses and all- and was bold and stubborn enough to let him know when he was being an ass and set him strait. Goten instantly decided they belonged together!

"I'm an Elite Warrior, First Class, Third Degree." Trunks answered with all the pride and posturing of a true Saiyan Prince. "I fear _nothing_!"

She smiled. "Except little girls in mini-skirts."

Goten stepped in to distract them both before Trunks could say or do something that he would regret later. "Well, I gotta go." He said. "I've got an awkward family diner to attend, then a Dragon Ball hunt in the morning. Your Highness, I'm sorry to trouble you, but would you mind escorting the Princess back to the Governor's Palace for me? I'm sure the other Senshi are starting to wonder where she's gone."

Trunks just looked at him. "You cannot be serious."

But Goten was already walking out the door. They had been adequately distracted, the fearing little girls comment already forgotten, and now were in a position to spend some 'quality time' together. Goten had never tried being a matchmaker before, he wasn't sure if he had any skill for the trade or not, but he thought this was off to a fairly decent start so far. After all, the foundation was already there, now he just had to make sure they spent enough time together for nature to take its course…

"You can't leave me alone with her!" Trunks stood up and shouted through the conference room door, but Goten had already gone.

Now, alone together, the Prince looked back at the Moon Princess, glaring at her as if studying some strange and and unknown yet possibly volatile creature.

The Princess looked right back at him, matching his glare with one of her own -hers challenging. She liked him, or at least, she _thought _she liked him back in the engine room when she kissed him. Before she realized he was the Prince. He was her purple-furred weremonkey, even if he did grow up to be an insufferable prat. But then, they hadn't exactly rediscovered one another under the most amiable of circumstances. In the midst of an enemy attack. It was liable to put anyone on edge. She was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, remain civil and try again.

"So…" She began awkwardly, not really knowing what to say. Her eyes settled on the mechanics jumpsuit he still wore and the plethora of grease, oil, and other fluid stains on it. "You like machines, huh. That's cool. Me? I wouldn't know what to do with all that stuff. All those tubes and things. I'd probably end-up blowing up whatever it was I was trying to fix just because-"

"Princess." He cut her off rather abruptly. "Stop. I don't know you. You say we met before and I'm willing to believe that we might have, but I don't remember it. So, don't act so familiar with me. We are not friends. It was ten years ago, and you don't know me either."

She was suddenly reminded of her fathers words no more than a few short days ago, '_But that was a decade ago, Chibiusa-chan. You both were very different people back then._' And she suddenly realized the truth of those words. It was ten years ago, they were just children back then. They were adults now. Of course they would be completely different people now. It was silly and naive to think that he would still be her playmate with the friendly blue eyes.

"Well, then…" She began, "what if… What if we got to know each other all over again?"

There was a beat of silence.

Then the Prince turned with a scoff back to the door. "Useless waste of time. I'm going to shower, then I'll take you back to the Governor's Palace. You and your people may stay the night and tomorrow we'll examine your actions today and your purpose in being here."

He left.

…

Twenty minutes later, Small Lady found herself in the arms of the Prince -in full armor now, complete with a cape- being carried as if she were a bomb that might blow up in his face at any moment. Seriously, she had no idea it was possible to hold a person so far away from ones' self without dropping them. And she really did feel like she was about to fall any second now. Between his tentative hold under legs and behind her back and the air rushing hard at them, Small Lady decided it was a miracle she hadn't plummeted into the moonlit waters of the Pacific already.

Moonlit… The sun had gone down over this part of the world during her long recount of their first meeting, while they were all stilling inside. And wouldn't you know… tonight was another full moon! What were the chances?

The Prince wore a visor over his eyes. Something about the rose-colored lenses was supposed to filter out the blunts-waves that triggered the oozaru transformation. It was all very science'y and she didn't understand everything that came out of the Prince's mouth. Something about solar-radiation and light wave that were always present in moonlight but only reached a critical level when the moon was full. Light and radiation refracted through the pupils setting off a gland in the tail… Truth be told, she stopped listening. The long and short of it was that, so long as he had the visor over his eyes, he wouldn't transform into a giant weremonkey.

This came as a great relief to the Lunarian Princess, but also made her curious. She reached a hand out to touch the frameless visor, only to have the hand that was supporting her legs suddenly drop that half of her body and grab her wrist instead.

They stopped flying, coming to a dead-halt in mid-air, Small Lady supported by only one hand under his arms.

"Don't." Growled the Prince. With a firm grip on her wrist, he moved her hand back to rest at her side.

"Sorry." She said, then quickly decided that she had nothing to apologize for. "I wasn't gonna take them off! I was just curious is all."

He scoffed. Once again hooking his arm under her legs, he resumed flying, carrying her bridal style, but at arms' length.

"Do you need them?" She continued, shouting now to be heard over the sound of rushing air. "I mean, can't you control your other form now?"

"I have been trained by the best masters in the Empire." He informed her. "Of course I can control it!"

"So then, why do you need the visor?"

"Because, at some point tonight, I'd like to walk through the door of my mother's estate and flop down on a real bed." The Prince replied as if this should have been obvious. "I can't do that in the oozaru form."

"Oh." Small Lady paused a moment, then asked, "You can't change back at will?"

His gaze shifted from watching where they were flying just long enough to shoot her an annoyed glance before his attention returned ahead. "If we could change at will then we wouldn't need the moonglasses in the first place. The only ways to turn back from the oozaru form are to wait for the moon to go down or else cut off your tail. The transformation has nothing to do with will."

"Oh."

They flew in silence for some time after that. Small Lady didn't really know what to say to strike up a conversation with him and he seemed content to just fly in silence. Besides, it was hard to hear one another over the roar of the wind rushing past their ears. But still… the silence between them was awkward. At least, Small Lady thought it was.

It wasn't until she saw the dark mottled surface of land underneath them that the Prince broke their silence.

"By the way," he said, "why were you so intent to find me?"

"Huh?" She blinked at him, not having heard the question. Her attention was fixed ahead of them where she saw the lights of a big city coming into view.

"You spent ten years looking for me. Why?" He repeated impatiently.

"Oh, well…" She looked embarrassed. "I, uh, I wanted to apologize to you."

To the Lunarian Princess' great surprise, this answer was met with a single ironic laugh from the Prince. "_You_ apologize to _me_? What in the world for? According to you, I was the one who transformed and ran amuck!"

That was true. Suddenly, Small Lady was feeling far less apologetic. But she explained anyway, "Yeah, but… I beat you up afterwards. I mean, my Papa and I beat you up, and it was my fault you transformed in the first place. I thought we'd hurt you, and I thought we gotten you in trouble. So, I wanted to tell you I'm sorry."

He was silent a long moment. The lights in the distance growing ever nearer. It wasn't until they were passing over the well lit but empty city streets (the planet being on Security Alert 3, a curfew was imposed for all non-military personal) that the Prince finally spoke again.

"Never apologize." He told her. "It shows weakness."

Small Lady couldn't decide if he were calling her weak, a grievous insult among Saiyans, or if he was trying to give her advice, impart some version of wisdom to her. Saiyan wisdom. Ultimately, she decided it didn't matter. She didn't agree with him. Apologizing showed strength of character, responsibility, and maturity. Definitely not traits that were associated with weakness.

Or, was he saying she didn't need to apologize because there was nothing to forgive. In which case, why couldn't he just say that? Saiyans and their pride. Stupid.

…

The Prince could not get rid of the Princess fast enough. Passing her off to the first available warrior with officer chevrons to escort her back to her comrades. He had more important things to do than babysit an -admittedly very attractive- obnoxiously naive woman. The moment he transferred custody of her to someone else, he made a B-line for the Governor's office.

Raditz was long gone. Having left -probably around the same time Goten _abandoned_ him alone with the Princess- to attend a Son family diner. After all, how often was it that all of them were on the same planet at the same time? Never. Considering that one of them was dead at the moment, they still weren't all on the same planet -or plane of existence- at the same time. Wouldn't that make for some fun conversation. Not for the first time, the Prince was glad he wasn't a member of that family.

He left the door to the office open, he would only be in here for a few moments. Just needed to use the Governor's terminal to check the list of enemy officers that were captured alive, see if any had been interrogated yet, pull those files to read at his leasure, or schedule interrogations for the ones still in holding.

The leader of the attack, a warrior called Dodoria, was captured alive. That was good. But the Prince frowned when he saw that he hadn't yet been interrogated. Curious, and ever so slightly irritated, he pulled out Raditz's chair and sat down to pull up and read the complete report.

Apparently, he wasn't yet interrogated because the boys from the Department of Intelligence and Security (or DIS) didn't know how to handle him. He wasn't unusually hard to break, nor did he fight back. That was just it. He didn't resist at all. In fact, he was very polite and cooperative when the Interrogator arrived with two guards to escort him from his holding cell to the interrogation room. So much to the point where the Interrogator decided to leave him there for observation instead of starting right away. That was several hours ago and there was no secondary report or anything to indicate that he had been interrogated yet. For all the Prince knew, Dodoria was still sitting alone and unbothered in the interrogation room. What the hell kind of incompetence was this?

Wanting an explanation, he skimmed through the incident reports.

Of course.

Leaning back in the seat, the Prince brushed his bangs out of his face in irritation. The Lunarian Princess. Sailor Moon. According to the reports she was the one who defeated Dodoria, hitting him with an attack from her wand that was described to be like a cascade of glitter and light. She must have used the same attack on him that she used on Cui back on the _Cutlass_. What did she say it did? Cleanse a person of their evil? Well, that would explain why he was so cooperative and polite. Ascendancy soldiers were not _normally_ polite. It also explained why the Interrogator was suddenly so wary of Dodoria and opted to keep him under observation. He didn't believe it and probably thought it was an act of some kind. A trap.

Other militaries had done similar things before. Booby-trap their soldiers in ways that only interrogation techniques would trigger and end up killing both the prisoner and the interrogator, and depending on the nature of the trap, possibly destroying a sizable portion of the surrounding area. It was a prudent more to have him sequestered. But it wasn't necessary. The Prince had experience questioning someone 'cleansed' by Sailor Moon, he would do the interview.

Interview, not interrogation. An interrogation wasn't necessary at this point.

Pulling a datapad out from the desk, the Prince transferred over any files he thought might be helpful during the interview before getting up to find the Intelligence Officer in charge of the prisoner.

The I.O. was still in his office when the Prince entered, unannounced, his datapad under his arm, an impatient frown on his face. The Intelligence Officer was on his feet before the Prince even had time to shut the door behind him.

"Ah, Your Highness. What can I do for you?"

The I.O. didn't offer pleasantries or menace words which suited the Prince just fine. "Take me to the leader of the Ice-jin troops, Dodoria."

Here, the Intelligence Officer paused. "Ah, Sir, I have him under quarantine at the moment. His behavior upon capture was uncommonly suspicious and thought it best to postpone interrogation until-"

"There's no need for that." The Prince cut him off impatiently. "I know what's wrong with him and I've dealt with it before. If you're to cowardly to do your job, then you can sit in the observation room while _I_ conduct his interview."

At the 'cowardly' comment, the I.O. bristled with insult, but said nothing to challenge the insinuation. Ones does not challenge the Prince of the Saiyans (especially not over petty matters) and retain the ability to walk or speak. However, something he said, did merit a question. "Interview, Sir?"

To his question, the Prince only growled in impatience. Sometimes, it really was true what they said about 'military intelligence'. He didn't have time to explain things that would become obvious to people who were beneath him. He brushed past the I.O. to the man's desk and booted up the terminal. DIS terminals were automatically triple encrypted but each I.O. always added their own layers of security to their own computers -it helped deter peers from spying on one another, which was a common occurrence in the Department of Intelligence and Security. The Prince passed the first three security layers easily, then looked up at the I.O. to give the man a chance to volunteer his passcodes before the Prince just hacked them. Software wasn't any harder to take apart than machinery, it was just less strait forward and so was more time consuming.

At the Prince's glare, the I.O. rushed over, his hands flying over the keyboard to give the Prince the access he wanted.

Dodoria was being held in one of the iso tanks used to quarantine people -both enemies and allies- until they could be assessed for possible passive threats. Not just bodily boobytraps, but viruses, bacteria and microbes. Space was a bit place, full of the strange and wonderful, but not everything mixed well with Saiyan or human bio-chemistry. Someone might visit an unknown asteroid in the middle of nowhere and pick up a particle on their armor. In space it would be dormant, harmless. But on Earth, exposed to heat, light, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, water -whatever you can think of really- that single particle might turn into a deadly spore that wipes out an entire city before you can finally stop it.

Or like that heart virus Goten's dad caught that one time.

The Prince didn't expect any such bio-hazards from Dodoria. But he idly wondered if Sailor Moon's 'Moon Healing Escalation' might cleanse a person of microbes or viruses as well. After all, the attack did have the word '_healing_' in it.

But that was an irrelevant tangent. It wouldn't do him any good to be thinking about the Princess right now. He could reflect on her mysterious and unquantifiable power later. Right now he had to focus on getting the information he needed out of Dodoria. Thoughts of pink hair or ruby eyes and soft lips pressed against his were an unwelcome distraction.

The I.O. opened the door for the Prince before withdrawing to watch and record from the observation room.

The room was not particularly large. About ten by sixteen, larger than the holding cells, but smaller than the interrogation rooms, and it was as plain as plain could be. Bare gray walls, completely devoid of features or character, one mirror on the side wall -a two way mirror that allowed whomever was in the observation room to see but not be seen by whomever occupied the room, and a table. Equally dull and featureless, really, not much more than a slab of aluminum held up by four legs. And two chairs.

One such chair was already occupied.

A large alien. Not large as in muscular or tall -although, if he stood, he might still be fallen than the Prince- but large in the sense that he was grotesquely fat. The Prince's knee-jerk reaction upon seeing the pink-skinned obese alien was to wonder at how such a creature could ever manage to be considered a warrior at all, never mind be a high-level officer in the Kold Family's army. But he quickly reminded himself that not all fighters had to keep a cut figure. If they had the power to blast an opponent to dust with a belch, then one didn't need to keep their body in such finely honed shape.

He looked up when the Prince entered, the same bemused and slightly innocent expression on his face that Cui had after Sailor Moon's attack.

The Prince sat down in the chair opposite him, setting his datapad to the side for the moment. "Do you know who you are?"

"Yes." Dodoria replied with a smile. It was the kind of smile a child might give to a teach when they're sure they know the correct answer to a question in class. "I'm Dodoria, Left Hand General to Lord Freeza."

The Prince nodded, so much was already confirmed in the files he read. Perhaps it was good that the I.O. had let him sit for a while. Back on the _Cutlass_, Cui seemed to need some time to recover and regain his mental faculties after being 'cleansed' by Sailor Moon.

The Prince continued, "You came here with three ships, together containing a total of two-thousand four-hundred and sixteen soldiers. Why?"

"To attack the Earth." Dodoria replied. He didn't say it maliciously or vindictively, but rather, a flat bland statement. Almost like he didn't fully understand that what he was saying was bad. He was telling the truth, and the truth was good.

"Why so many?" The Prince pressed. "The Ascendancy and the Empire have been poking each other for millennia. Why suddenly escalate things now?"

Dodoria blinked two sets of alien eyelids at him, not understanding his question.

With a sigh, the Prince went at the question from another direction. "What was your mission objective?"

"The total and complete extinction of the human race, plus any and all half-breeds we might find."

That gave the Prince a moment's pause. They weren't attacking the Empire, not directly. Their targets were not Imperial targets. No government buildings, no training bases, no troop barracks, ship yards, not even Capsule Corporation -the Queen's Estate. No. Their targets were the people of Earth. The weak and harmless humans that populated the planet. The humans… and the _hansaiya_. The _hansaiya_ who's potential for power was much greater than that of a normal Saiyan warrior, and the humans, the race that made such a power-house possible.

Their target may not have been a military target, but it was still a tactical target. A _long term_ tactical target. This was no ordinary poke by the Ascendancy. This was something else. Something more.

Clearing his throat, which had suddenly gone dry, the Prince asked, "Did your superiors tell you the reason why the humans were to be your targets?"

"Yes." Nodded Dodoria, very proud of himself that Lord Freeza believed him so trustworthy.

"Why were the humans and _hansaiya_ targeted?"

"To eliminate a threat."

The Prince was becoming frustrating. Dodoria might be cooperating the best as his naive, recently washed brain could comprehend, but he still wasn't giving strait answers. "What possible threat could the humans pose to the Ascendancy? Or the Kold Family? Or even just Freeza by himself?"

Dodoria was a long time in answering. The Prince could see his slow, still recovering brain processing the question and working through the answer. Finally, after a prolonged pause, he explained, "The half-breed offspring of humans and Saiyans are stronger…" He paused, either gathering his words together or trying to remember the next part of the explanation. "They could… King Kold believes… produce a new Legendary."

At that one word, the Prince stood up. He turned around to tap the two-way mirror behind him and commanded, "Stop all recording right now and leave."

A protest of, "But, Your Highness…" was heard over the intercom, but the I.O. said no more. The Prince continued to glare at his reflection until a light was turned on in the observation room, turning the mirror into a window, allowing the Prince to see that the Intelligence Officer was, indeed, shutting down all surveillance and recording equipment in the room before he left. The Prince waited until the count of ten after he was gone before turning back around and once again sitting down with Dodoria.

Very soberly, he asked, "What do the Ice-jin know of our Legendary?"

This time, the pause before he answered was even longer. The Prince found himself suppressing the urge to reach across the table and shake Dodoria violently until he answered. But that probably wouldn't help maters much. Or, at least, he told himself it wouldn't. The Prince had never been a very patient man. But he tried.

Finally, Dodoria said, "Long ago, when the Ice-jin race was young and the Saiyans even younger, a Lord named Chill visited Vegeta-sei, which was then called Planet Plant…"

The Prince knew this story. He remembered Grandfather King Vegeta telling him a version of it as a boy. It was a tale about his ancestor, the Legendary, and how he fought off an alien invader all by himself with only his power and his will to carry him through. It was also the origin story for the near eternal rivalry between the Empire and the Ascendancy. The story ended with the Legendary vowing to destroy the Ice-jin and the threat they presented to his planet and people, and swore that his decedents would carry on the same mission until the universe had been cleansed of their evil.

"…Lord Chill was mercilessly brutalized by one of the savages, a warrior they called the Legendary. As he lay dying on his ship, Lord Chill vowed do destroy the Legendary and his entire filthy race."

That part was new. But it made sense. From a dramatic perspective. Looking at the way the Empire and Ascendancy behaved now, however, they weren't trying to erase one another from the universe, just poke each other every now and again, like neighbors whom hated one another but were stuck with each other none the less.

That is… until now. Wanting to destroy every human on Earth, that sounded more like the original Lord Chill's vow. But then…?

"What makes Kold so sure the next Legendary will come from the _hansaiya_?" After all, it was common knowledge that the mingling of human and Saiyan blood made for a stronger offspring. Gohan wrote as much in his books. It was free information out there for anyone to take. But the Legendary… that was a theory -a secret theory- that only his family was supposed to be privy to. It hadn't even been proven yet. Not a single _hansaiya_ to date had displayed any signs of ascending to become the next Legendary. Not even the Prince! A direct male-line decedent of the Legendary. How did Kold figure out something only he, his father, and _maybe_ Nappa were supposed to know?

Dodoria shook his head. "Don't know."

Wonderful. "What are King Kold's long-term goals?"

That answer took far less time. "The elimination of possible Legendary threat, then, the complete and total annihilation of the Saiyan race. Once and for all. As Lord Chill vowed." Then he leaned over the table, for the first time volunteering information without being asked, "You see, of all the families in the Ascendancy, the Kolds are the only direct decedents of Lord Chill. They intend to carry out their ancestor's final promise."

"I… see…" Well now. That changed a few things.

This wasn't the usual game of poke-the-bear that they were used to playing with the Ascendancy. This was real. They were serious. It wasn't small squabbles over property lines or stolen newspapers -to harken back to the hostile neighbors analogy. Now it was -quite literally- a matter of life or death. The Kolds wanted to kill every last Saiyan and person of Saiyan blood in the universe. It was a goal laid down my their ancestor, they would never stop. That meant that the Empire's only hope of securing their own safety was to kill every last member of the Kold Family. It was an 'Us or Them' situation.

That changed things, indeed.

Then, something else occurred to him. "Dodoria, you're _ki_ is sufficient to destroy a planet. Why didn't you just blow the Earth up from space?"

And at that, the alien looked away. The first sign of actual remorse he'd shown since the Prince walked into the room. So, Sailor Moon's attack did, indeed, cleanse a person of evil. He knew what he came here to do was bad and he was recovered enough from the shock of whatever it was Sailor Moon did to feel remorse. Interesting. "It was Lord Freeza's suggestion." He explained. "And King Kold endorsed it. We weren't _just_ to eradicate the human race. They wanted us to send a message. That no matter how far you stretch across the stars, or what advantages and strengths you find in other races… you will always be weak lonely monkeys. Unable to save those around you, and… unable to save yourselves."

The idea was to make them suffer before the Kold's destroyed them all.

How many Saiyan warriors had taken human partners for mates over the past two decades? How many soldiers serving their four year term in the Fleet had parents on Earth? The Prince remembered the tightness and anxiety in Goten's face back aboard the _Dominance_ when Nappa made his comment about coming home 'just in time to bury their dead'. If Dodoria and his troops had succeeded in their mission, the blow to Imperial moral would have been devastating.

He learned all he needed to from that fat pink alien. The Prince stood.

Dodoria gazed up at him, innocent and trusting. "I'm sorry for trying to kill your people."

Those were his last words. The Prince didn't say anything. He just drew his sword, fast as lightning and cut the alien warrior in two. The pieces slid off of the chair and onto the with a kind of sickly surreal sluggishness, oozing fluids all other the floor. Normal interrogation rooms were equipped with drains in their floors, but this was an iso cell, it had no drain. The Prince hovered a few inches off the ground to keep the gore off his boots. Extending his hand, there was just one short blast of ki then there was no more gore to stain his boots and no more pieces of Dodoria either. Only dust.

That was what happened to enemies of the Empire.

Enemies of the Empire…

The Empire's enemies were moving. Threatening more than the Prince had ever experienced in his lifetime. The complete destruction of both the human and the Saiyan races. Both his parent peoples.

He wrenched the door open, almost pulling it off its hinges and stormed through the corridors of the Governor's Palace. So much to do.

His first stop was back at the I.O.'s office. Knowing they types of people that were generally transferred to the Department of Intelligence and Security the Prince was fairly certain the I.O. had made a copy of the recording before shutting off all the equipment. The Prince needed to make sure that there were no more leaks about the Legendary.

The I.O.'s protests were ignored as the Prince tore down the firewalls and purged the terminal of all its information. When that was done, he destroyed the machine for good measure.

"My daughter's daijutsu pictures were in there." He muttered dejectedly as the machine gave a final pathetic sputter and the scent of ozone filled the air.

At that comment, the Prince paused. "Your daughter, is she _hansaiya_?"

"Yes." He nodded, smiling with the kind of paternal pride the Prince rarely -if ever- saw on his own father's face. "Only five years old and already Second Class, First Degree."

"I did her a service." He left.

The second stop was back to Raditz's office.

The Prince sat down at the desk and began typing a hurried document. Nothing fancy or flowery, just a strait forward contract for the Lunarians currently on Earth. That the Empire would accept their aid, and in exchange would allow them to remain on Earth and offer them free room and board with access to whatever tools or supplies they needed to maintain their weapons and equipment, and three meals a day. It was the most the Prince could offer without consulting his father first and, quite frankly, he was pretty sure his father would disapprove of even that, preferring instead to kick the Moon people off his planet and fight the Kolds without their strange magical aid. But the Prince saw what they could do in battle and he wanted that kind of mysterious and unquantifiable power on their side.

'_Well, then… what if… What if we got to know each other all over again?_'

And it had _nothing_ to do with the Lunarian Princess or her soft, soft lips and earnest desire to get reacquainted with him. The Prince was interested in their power and how he could use them to serve the Empire. That was all.

He made Goten the official liaison between the Lunarians and the Empire. He was the only officer within the military and currently on Earth that the Prince trusted with the job. Plus he already had some experience with their magic. He may not have seen what the Princess did on the _Cutlass_, but he had been present to witness their Sailor Teleport. That, at least, should give him some idea of what he was dealing with. It was better than sending in another officer who'd never seen a Sailor Senshi before and had no idea what to expect.

After the document was finished and quickly skimmed over for typos or errors, the Prince saved the contract to Raditz's hard drive, then transferred a copy of it to the datapad he originally took from the desk. Pressing his thumb down on the bottom of the touch-screen at the end of the document, he waited for the machine to beep, indicating that it had scanned his thumbprint and verified that he was who he said he was. The print and his name, Prince Vegeta XV, then appeared at the bottom of the document. It was signed. It was official. Now, the only authority that could overrule it was his father.

He put the datapad away where a careless secretary couldn't pick it up and lose it. Then typed out a quick note on Raditz's terminal telling him where it was and giving him instructions for dealing with the Lunarians.

Then he was once again out the door. Flying back to the Patriot.

The large warship was not yet ready for a planetary take-off, not that it could be flown by one man anyway. So, the Prince climbed into a pod instead. Punched in the coordinates for Vegeta-sei -since the main Fleet, plus the _Dominance_ should be back there by now- and then was on his way zooming through space.

This was news he had to bring to his father in person.

...


	11. It Must Be You

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment. Same disclaimer applies for Sailor Moon and related characters.

Space Opera

Chapter Eleven: It Must Be You

The Dragon Ball was perched precariously on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a river of lava, from which noxious sulfuric vapors wafted. It seared the skin and burned the eyes, that's not to mention what it did to the lungs. Damn obnoxious Dragon Balls and their damn absurd landing places.

Goten kept a shield of ki tight to his body to insulate him against the heat and the vapors -just like he did when in outer space. He snagged the Dragon Ball, the Six Star Ball, and zoomed far away from there. No reason to hang around when he got what he came for. Not when there was fresh clean air and reasonable temperatures somewhere else. Once again in breathable air, Goten dropped his ki shield and relaxed. Tapping his scouter, he called Gohan.

"Got one. Its the Six Star ball." He said. "How're you coming along?"

"Gohan left his scouter with me again." Videl's voice answered over the channel. "You can reach him on his cell phone."

Goten grumbled something incomprehensible -but very rude no doubt- under his breath, before saying, "'Kay, thanks." and clicking off. He then pulled up Gohan's cell number and called that. He hated calling people's personal phones from his scouter because the words 'Connected: Civilian Device…' flashed across the glass lens every second and a half and it was very distracting. As if he didn't know he was calling a civilian device and needed to be reminded every moment of the call that the person he was talking to was not an Imperial.

This time, it _was_ Gohan who answered. "Hello?"

"Do you have something against scouters in general, or is it just yours you don't like?" Asked Goten testily. It was really more of a rhetorical question, because he was annoyed, he didn't really need an answer. "Anyway, I'm just calling to let you know I found my Dragon Ball. How are things going on your end?"

"Awesome." Gohan replied, sounding please. "With the one I just found that brings our number up to three. I gotta say, that Dragon Radar app the Prince added to your scouter really is pretty nifty. I'm gonna drop this one off at home before I get the next one. Why don't you-"

Gohan was abruptly cut off and the call ended by another incoming signal. That was how it was with scouter to civilian device connections. Anytime a message came in from another scouter or other Imperial device, the call was kicked off. You did not put the Empire on hold, and the Empire did not have time to wait for you to put your civilian caller on hold.

"Where are you right now?" Uncle Razzy's voice asked in his ear, gruff and impatient.

Goten double checked his coordinates before answering, "Somewhere over the south-eastern continent. Why? Trouble?"

He was still not technically on leave and as Captain of the Prince's flagship was on call twenty-four/seven, but then again, the whole planet was still on security alert anyway, after the Ice-jin attack just yesterday. His first reaction should be to assume that any call from a superior officer, or any call over Imperial frequencies for that matter, was a call to arms, or some other equally important emergency.

"No. Well, not really _trouble_, per say…" Uncle Razzy replied awkwardly. "But I need you to come to the Governor's Palace as soon as you can. As soon as you can drop off whatever Dragon Balls you might have found and change back into your uniform."

"Roger that." He immediately started flying back to Mount Paozu. "Something wrong?"

"Wrong? No. The Prince has just bestowed new responsibilities on you."

"Oh?" Trunks didn't say anything about that yesterday. Whatever it was, was probably the Prince's revenge for being left along with the Lunarian Princess. Ah, well. We all have to take our lumps.

…

"Considering that, just yesterday, you were willing to help us for free, I don't see what the problem is." Raditz growled over the conference table.

As per the Prince's instructions, he called the representatives of the Lunarian group back to the conference room and presented them with the hastily written and entirely temporary treaty. Raditz thought it was strait forward and reasonable enough. The Empire had not asked for the Moon Kingdom's aid, they just showed up in the middle of yesterday's fight to help and didn't mention wanting anything in return -either for their kingdom or themselves as individuals. Raditz thought the Prince's terms of their continued support in exchange for room and board and whatever they needed to keep up their wands and tiaras and magical roses, or whatever other equipment they had, seemed fair.

Two of the three designated representatives of the Lunarian group seemed to agree with Raditz's opinion. The Princess being to shocked that the Prince was letting them stay at all to argue anything. Endymion, the so-called Lunarian King, also admitted that for the moment and the circumstances, it was the best deal they would get at this time and perhaps the contract could be revisited at a later date when all the necessary players could sit down at one table in a more formal setting. But the third Lunarian representative, Sailor Venus, the Leader of the Sailor Senshi, did not agree.

"The problem," she replied, glaring daggers at the Saiyan, "is that we will be doing just as much work as any soldiers of your army and be getting practically nothing in return. How about an alliance instead? We come to the Empire's aid now, help them protect the Earth from the Ascendancy, and in return, if the Moon Kingdom is ever attacked, the Empire will come to our aid. Its only fair."

Whether it seemed fair or not was immaterial at the moment. "Unfortunately, I do not have the authority to alter the contract. Its either the Prince's terms, or else nothing at all. The decision to accept them or not is up to you. If you do accept, fine. I'll have the Official Liaison escort you to more permanent military housing -as soon as he gets here. If not, that's fine too, you'll just be invited to leave. If you do not leave, we will either make, or kill you. At that point you'd be trespassing in our territory and we'd be well within our rights to do so. Those are your options."

"If any one of you lays a hand against us, you won't just have the Ascendancy to worry about." Venus warned.

"Venus," the Endymion cut in, "sit down."

He pulled the datapad with the Prince's terms to him and began reading it over one more time.

Raditz hated these things. He was no diplomat. He didn't know how to negotiate anything without using his fists. He wasn't even much of a bureaucrat either, hating paperwork and offices. Not for the first time, he wondered what in the world had possessed him to accept the offer of the governorship of Earth. Kakarot had been alive at the time and Raditz's options were either take the desk job, or else return to service in the Fleet. Be stationed on a random warship and only be able to see his brother or his family during the rare and all to short periods of leave. That had been why Raditz accepted the governor's position. He didn't realize at the time the Kakarot would be dead or off who-know-where half the time anyway. Raditz would have been just as well staying in the military. Might have even been made Captain of his own ship by now…

"I think we should take the deal." The Princess said, snapping everyone's attention to her. "I want… I want to stay here and help. Besides, the Prince strikes me at the type of person who would not have given us the option to stay if he didn't need want us for something. I think we can do good here. If it turns out that more compensation should be given for what we contribute, then we can renegotiate later." A pause. "Where is the Prince, by the way?"

Here Raditz paused, not knowing exactly how to answer. The Prince's note, while vaguely mentioning why he couldn't be present at the negotiations, had not been to specific in that area. The best answer Raditz could give was, "Urgent business has called the Prince back to the capitol."

"Oh." Her eyes fell, disappointed.

Raditz chose to ignore her unusual interest in the Prince. If there was any good gossip to be had about them, he was sure he'd be hearing from Goten soon -if he ever signed to show up!- and it it wasn't gossip but something more relevant to his position in the government, then he would hear about it when he needed to. So, ignoring the Lunarian Princess's disappointment over hearing that the Prince was away, he addressed the King, asking, "Will you be agreeing to the terms then?"

Endymion glanced quickly at his daughter, contemplating. She flashed him a pleasing look. He sighed. "Very well. But on the condition that we revisit the contract at a later date. For now these terms will do, but they are completely unacceptable for anything long-term."

"The idea was never for this to be long-term." Raditz agreed. "This is only a temporary treaty with temporary terms."

The Lunarian King nodded and pressed his thumb to the datapad's touchscreen, near the bottom of the document. "This is how you sign, right?"

Just then, the door opened and Goten stumbled in, in a rush. "Okay! I'm here! What's so urgent?"

The Lunarians gaped at him, halfway between startled and suspicious, and amused at his expense. Perfect. Real professional, Goten. You are definitely your father's son.

Raditz pinched the bridge of his nose. "Perfect timing." He said. "Your Majesty, King Endymion, Captain Son here will be acting as the Liaison between the Empire and yourselves. Anything you need, just ask him."

"Wait, what?" Goten looked at his uncle in startled confusion. "I'm the what now?"

…

Sleeping in a space pod had become easy after three -almost the complete four- years of service in the Fleet, but it was never comfortable. Trunks drifted in and out of sleep.

Reclining as best he could in the airline-style seat, his arms crossed over his chest because there was no other _comfortable_ place to put them. His dreams were of heroic archetypes of the past, and grilled meat that he would pick up but then could not eat -this was most likely do to the fact that he had not eaten anything before jumping in his pod and taking off-, and dark looming villains that threatened his home and way of life.

_He was sitting in his Grandfather's lap_.

That right there should have been his first clue that this wasn't real, Grandfather King Vegeta never let Trunks sit in his lap, never hugged him, never showed the type of affection that Gramps and Grammy so freely showered him with, not even once. But everything seems normal and makes perfect sense in dreams.

_They sat at the long table, the one used for formal court dinners. It sat on a three-tiered dais and looked down on the rest of the Hall. But the Hall was empty apart from them. The table before them was laid with _yakiniku,_ bacon covered doughnuts, ice cream, pie-flavored cake… but no matter how hard the Prince reached for it, or how much his arm stretched, he couldn't seem to get at the grilled meat, the bacon doughnuts rolled away from him, the ice cream slithered out of his grasp… None of the food let him eat._

_"…it appeared that a golden light was shinning through the form and raiment of the warrior, as if through the thin veil of mortal flesh." Grandfather was saying, but the Prince wasn't paying much attention. His dinner was escaping him and that took precedence over everything. "The Seer says that the Legendary will return one day and that he will come in the form of a _hansaiya_. It might even be you, my little Vegeta. It _should_ be you. You are a direct decedent of the Legendary, the most recent in a proud dynasty. It _has_ to be you."_

_The Prince grumbled indignantly about how he couldn't possibly be the Legendary if he couldn't even get the plates of grilled meat to stop running away from him. _

_Grandfather King Vegeta laughed, an oddly shrill laugh that was not his own that slowly morphed into what became recognizable as a scouter announcing an incoming call. _

Groggily, Trunks blinked at the round view-port of his pod trying to remember why he was in a pod and how he could make that obnoxious sound go away. Tapping his scouter, he said with a yawn, "Hmm… what is it…?"

"Where the hell are you!?" Goten's voice growled in his ear.

Trunks rubbed his other eye, the one not covered by a red glass lens, with the heel of his hand and recalled that he'd climbed into a pod because he couldn't fly the _Patriot_ back to Vegeta-sei. He was going to Vegeta-sei because… _shit_! That's right! Quickly, he checked his current coordinates, made sure his course trajectory was still correct and no random astral body with a strong gravitational pull had dragged him off course while he was sleeping. When that was done, he answered his friend's question. "I'm another eight hours out from the capitol. Why? Trouble back on Earth?"

Goten ignored the question, which Trunks chose to interpret as there being nothing new since he left. "Why are you going back to the capitol? We only just got to Earth, I thought you wanted to goof-off and make an asshat of yourself like you always do when we come to Earth."

"Something came up." He thought about warning Goten that the Kold's were targeting humans and _hansaiya_ specifically. But then he would ask why, and Trunks couldn't tell him about the Legendary. If the Legendary appeared in another family, if another _hansaiya_ besides the Prince or his sister ascended to become the Legendary… it would be the end of the Vegeta Dynasty. His family thrown from power. The throne taken from them. It had to be Trunks, or else none at all. Grandfather King Vegeta had taken steps in the past to ensure that this was so.

It wasn't that Trunks didn't trust Goten. They grew up together and there was no other warrior in all the Empire that Trunks wanted at his back. They were best friends, but they were also Saiyans, and that meant that Goten was also competition. Friendly competition was a good thing. Healthy. It encouraged them to become better fighters, better warriors, better men. One always striving to heat the other, neither one ever stayed on top for very long, both giving each other a reason to seek new levels. But if Goten learned that he to had as much chance of becoming a Legendary as the Prince did… No, it had to be Trunks. It had to be the Prince, the direct decedent of the first Legendary. Or else no one at all… Trunks didn't want to think about something like that coming between them, so he couldn't tell Goten.

That, and he wasn't quite sure who could intercept their transmission. It was bad enough that the Ice-jin knew. The Empire, and more importantly his family, didn't need anymore information leaks.

"That's what Uncle Razzy said." Goten sounded annoyed. "I know you couldn't tell him, but c'mon, what's going on?"

"I have Princely things to do." Trunks growled. "And sometimes I can't tell _you_ about those things either."

"Fine. Keep your secrets. I'll find out eventually, anyway. You never could keep anything from me for very long." Sure, Chibi, whatever helps you sleep at night. "Anyway, when are you coming back? The Princess was very disappointed to hear that you'd gone."

For some reason, the memory of her ambush in the _Patriot_'s engine room sprang to his mind, unbidden. How she suddenly jumped at him, pressed her lithe body against his. She was so soft, all over. How the curve of her lower back felt under his hand when he wrapped his arm around her to keep the idiot from falling. And that kiss… He'd had better. Her's had been clumsy and unpracticed. Mashing her lips against his with no deliberation, just earnest intent. But her lips were been warm and soft and tasted vaguely of strawberry chapstick…

Trunks caught himself running a finger over his own lips at the memory and wondering if her kisses might improve with practice… Then he quickly came to his sense. "What do I care if she's disappointed? I can come and go as I please in my own damn Empire! I do not exist to serve her pleasure!"

There was a beat of silence on Goten's end.

Then, "Okay, well, I have no idea what exactly I'm supposed to do in my new position as Liaison. So, I just want you to know, if this whole thing with the Senshi goes south… _I blame you_! 'Kay?"

"Whatever." Trunks groaned, readjusting in his seat, trying to find a more comfortable position in the absurdly uncomfortable pod. "I've still got eight hours and nothing else to do. I'm going back to sleep. Hanging up now."

He clicked off before Goten could protest and set the scouter to only accept incoming calls with Priority One message tags. Then he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

This time the Lunarian Princess was in his dream.

_Her soft lithe body pressed against him. Her knees drawn up, her hands gripping at the shoulders of his cracked and broken armor. He wrapped one arm protectively around her trembling body while extending the other to get off a pathetically impotent _ki _blast. _

_The shot was deflected effortlessly by the dark figure that loomed over them. Short, white skinned, with a round head and a lizard-like tail. The face was half in shadow and indistinct, but the form was clear enough. Ice-jin. Kold. Or one of his sons. It didn't matter. One three-toed foot took a menacing step towards them and he wrapped his other arm around the Princess, holding her tighter against him. _

_The Ice-jin gathered his _ki,_ the power pooling in his hands. This was the end. The Prince might could save the Princess. Flip them around, place himself between her and the on-coming blast. Maybe once he was dead the Ice-jin wouldn't bother with her. After all, she was neither Saiyan nor _hansaiya_. Heck! She wasn't even an Imperial. Yes. That would be what he did. Save the woman. Die with honor. The Prince looked up into the face of his death, gathering his whatever energy reserves he had just to move._

_Then something unexpected happened._

_A new warrior appeared. His aura a shinning golden corona. His body illuminated as if lit from an internal light. His face, indistinct and general. He could have been anyone. Any Saiyan. _

_He came in from the left and rushed the Ice-jin. One solid punch to the face. _

_The Ice-jin went tumbling away. Recovered. Rushed back to return the punch. The two tangled in a blur of fists and feet, so fast that even the Prince's eyes could not follow them. One moment they were in front of him, then they were grappling in the air, then over to the right, then far off in the distance. Finally the golden Saiyan warrior threw him down and the Ice-jin did not get back up. _

_Then he came back to the Prince. _

_The Princess wriggled out of his arms and climbed to her feet, running to the golden warrior. He was clearly stronger than the Prince, of course she would prefer him. _

_The Prince stared up at the warrior. Face still nothing more than general features. Indistinct and anonymous. It could be anyone. Anyone but him. The Prince wasn't the Legendary. It was someone else. That meant… that meant…_

_The Legendary gathered a ball of _ki_ in his hand. This was it. His Dynasty was ended. The Prince was defeated, the Legendary was victorious. The strong ruled and the weak served. But not deposed monarchs. Deposed monarchs died. _

Trunks woke up before the blast hit him.

He groaned and rubbed his eyes. Which was worse, being woken up by a scouter call or a nightmare? Both were equally unpleasant.

There was no point in trying to go back to sleep now. He didn't even have to check his instruments, Trunks could clearly see Oca, the larger of Vegeta-sei's two suns, through his pod's viewport. Romanesco would be coming into view soon. From a a distance, Oca's light usually eclipsed the smaller star. And then, orbiting those binary stars at a distance of 159,600,000 kilometers was the red planet of Vegeta-sei.

Trunks checked his instruments, measuring his speed and the angle of his approach to make sure he wasn't going to fling himself into the sun and die a horrible fiery death, or slingshot around the suns and fling himself back out of the system (you'd be surprised how often lone pods actually did that). He had to correct his course by eleven degrees. It didn't sound like much, but over the great distance that he still was from the planet, it was a huge margin. That done, he opened a hailing channel to Landing Control at the Imperial Palace.

"Landing Control zero-zero-one, this is space pod DB-one-nine-seven-five, Prince Vegeta." He announced. "Have a landing cradle ready and waiting. Arrival time estimated at six minutes."

There was a pause on the other end as whomever was running the control tower checked his pod's ID code and his voice print to verify that he was, in fact, Prince Vegeta. Then, "Space pod DB-one-nine-seven-five, confirmed. Welcome home, Your Highness. Landing cradle number four is open and awaiting your touch down."

The recommended entry vector was fed into his pod's console and Trunks once again adjusted his angle and trajectory to align with, not only the landing field, but the individual cradle he was aiming for. And at this distance, with the planet itself still just a small red marble in his view, it was like trying to hit a grain of sand in Hawaii with a tank-shell fired from Russia.

"Entry vector confined." He announced when the computer acknowledged his changes. "Has the _Dominance_ return yet?"

"Sir." The Landing Control officer began in that subtle tone people used when they weren't sure if their answer might anger him or not. "Neither the King nor the Fleet have returned yet. On their last communiqué, estimated ETA was three hours from now."

Ah. So, he'd managed to beat his father here. Trunks couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Either way, while the delay in speaking to his father about this latest turn of events with the Ice-jin was annoying and quite possibly a waste of precious time, it did at least give Trunks time to consider what exactly he was going to say. King Vegeta XIV had a rather volatile temper and, while Trunks was technically stronger than him, he still found the idea of his father's rage terrifying. A small fear from his boyhood that he never seemed to outgrow. But then, no child liked to see their parents upset, he supposed.

His mother met him on the landing pad.

Just looking at her, one would never be able to tell that she was actually the most powerful (read: influential) person of non-Saiyan blood in the Empire. Dressed in plain blue-jeans and a Capsule Corp. t-shirt, flip-flop style sandals on her feet, and a baseball cap on her head, she looked more like an ordinary woman whom was on her way to a terran-picnic, got lost along the way, fell into a space-time wormhole, and ended up on Vegeta-sei. It was hard to believe she was the Queen. In fact, visitors to the Palace often mistook her for an off-duty servant more often than not. Those were interesting occurrences.

"So," she said, placing a hand on her hip and watching her son climb out of his space pod. "To what do we owe your unexpected return?"

Not that she wasn't happy to see her son. But Bulma knew better than anyone his moods and habits. Once Trunks was on Earth and unsupervised, nothing short of a direct order from his father would get him to leave again. And even then, he stalled and dragged his feat. For Trunks to rerun to the capitol of his own volition, alone, without the _Patriot_ or even Goten… something significant must have happened.

"Hello, Mother." He pointedly ignored her question. Crossing the distance between them, he gave her a hug instead. Because Dodoria's orders to kill all humans would have included her and he didn't want to think about what would have happened if she had been on Earth during the attack and their mission succeeded, and he was almost sick with relief that neither of those things happened. When he finally pulled back from the hug, Trunks continued, "I need to see Father as soon as the _Dominance_ arrives. But until then, I really need to eat!"

Bulma sighed in exasperation. Saiyans and their monstrous appetites. "I know you didn't fly here all the way from Earth just for a meal. But c'mon, lets get you fed."

…

The battle with the Kold family's forces had been a great disappointment. It was true what his son and Goten had said, the battle was nothing more than a diversion. A useless waste of time. Nothing like their usual skirmishes with the Ascendancy. That gave Vegeta cause to wonder.

If the battle was just a diversion and their real target Earth, what did the Kold family want? This was not the normal behavior of the Ascendency. He hoped the boy got there in time and didn't goof off. The King knew his son was more than capable of defending one planet with the soldiers and resources he had aboard the _Patriot_ plus his more than considerable intelligence in hearted from his mother -and a little bit from him. But he also lacked focus. Vegeta hoped that the boy would remain focused on what needed to be done long enough to actually finish it.

Earth was necessary for the Empire's continued strength. They could not afford to lose it.

The boy knew that. But more than that, the Earth was the home of his mother's people. It was his mother's home and he would defend it not just because the Empire needed it, but because, in some small way, he loved the Earth -possibly even more than he loved Vegeta-sei. The King needn't worry. But because it was the boy, his first born, and his only son, he did worry. The woman said it was something that couldn't be helped, 'paternal instinct' she called it, all parents feel a version of it and it couldn't be helped. 'Weakness' what was _he_ called it. The boy could take care of himself, and so long as he kept his head on strait, could take care of those under his command and the planet he'd been sent to protect as well. Concern was unnecessary.

"Two minutes to hyperspace drop." The Helm announced.

Vegeta ignored him. Unlike his mate and offspring, he did not have an uncommon fascination with the nuances of space-travel. A ship was just a tool to get you from point A to point B. Admittedly, the ships the woman had designed over the years were worlds more comfortable than the simple one-man pods that were now only reserved for planetary drops or grunt troops, but that did not change their core function. To traverse the distance between planets and keep the warriors inside in fighting condition so that they would be ready when they reached their destination. Everything else was window-dressing.

"Dropping from hyperspace now."

The mottled sky of hyperspace melted away into starlings which then slowly condensed themselves back into the normal pin-pricks of light that were the stars when seen from normal space. There, ahead of them, looming big and red, was Vegeta-sei. The home world of the Saiyan race and capitol of their empire. Oca, the red giant star was slowly disappearing behind it, with Romanesco, the blue dwarf star trailing behind it. The suns' sets from the Palace must be beautiful right now, only about four times a year did both Oca and Romanesco set so close to one another. Vegeta found himself wondering if the woman were watching it right now, alone, or perhaps with their daughter, and thinking about him.

The King quickly dismissed the thought. Such sentiments did not belong on the bridge of a warship. After he was home, his feet firmly on the ground, then he could indulge in such trivialities.

His eyes focused on the space dock. Large capitol ships like the _Dominance_ and _Admonitor_ were much to large to land on the actual planet's surface. Only in extreme circumstances. That was one drawback of exchanging the smaller one-man pods for these behemoths. But the woman designed space stations for that specific purpose. The warship would park at a dock orbiting the planet and the crew would take a smaller shuttle down to the planet. The woman seemed to think of everything.

"Your Majesty," ventured the officer manning the Comm. "Message from the Prince, Sir. He says Earth is safe for the moment and he has returned to the capitol and needs to speak with you the moment you make planet-fall."

The King's eyes narrowed, searching the space dock growing ever-nearer in the bridge's main view-port. He did not see the_ Patriot_ docked at the station. That meant he had to have taken a one-man pod back to Vegeta-sei. Did that mean his ship was destroyed in the battle for Earth? Or had his infernal tinkering with the ship's damn engines finally caught up with him? Was it like the _Executor_ all over again? Damn boy. When was he gonna learn that a warrior's place, no scratch that, a _Prince's_ place was not bent over a machine covered in grease, but on the bridge of his ship, in a place of command.

Then it occurred to the King that his son had no real reason to return to Vegeta-sei once Earth was safe. He was already on holiday when this whole mess started, his crew about to start a temporary leave of service. If Earth was once again safe, Vegeta would have expected the boy to stay there, waste his time one women, music, drink, games, and whatever other frivolities he indulged in, and wouldn't come home until he'd had his fill -or Vegeta had to drag him. So, then… why had the boy returned to the capitol? To speak to the King in person, obviously. But why? What was so important that it could not be said over a comm channel, or even a direct scouter-to-scouter signal?

Now the King was curious and wary.

He spent the rest of the time it took the Dominance to dock thinking about it. Deliberating all the possibilities and organizing them in his mind from most mundane and trivial, to most severe and of earth-shattering import. By the time the King finally climbed out of the landing shuttle and set foot on the Imperial Palace's landing pad, he had every possibility he could think of neatly organized in a bulleted list from A to Q, like the multiple-choice answers on a test.

Nappa would probably want to discuss the oddness of their battle with the Kolds, but the King put that off for the moment. He wanted to settle whatever it was that had prompted the boy to rush back here without his ship and crew when he didn't have to. Something so out of character for his son definitely merited five minutes of his time to investigate.

Vegeta followed the boy's ki to the sitting room of the Prince's suit where he found his son sitting on the floor with little Bra standing on the couch cushions behind him, attempting to twist his fine lavender hair into… what the hell kind of style was that!? Bunny ears? The King quickly decided he did not want to know.

The boy looked up self-consciously when the King entered.

"I, uh… I lost a bet." He explained.

The King he didn't care what his son's excuse was this time. It was not the first time he let his little sister play with his hair, molding it into an absurd and undignified style for a warrior. He act like he hated it, but that never prevented him from submitting to the little girl the next time she got 'inspired'. He crossed his arms over his chest and graded down at his children. "Bra, go bother your mother." He commanded. Then to the boy, he said, "You had something urgent to discuss."

"Yes." The Prince climbed to his feet, attempting to pull the knots out of his hair and only succeeding in making them tighter. By the gods he looked stupid! Things like this were the woman's influence. The boy waited until his little sister was out of the room, the door shut firmly behind her before he continued. Taking a moment to collect his words, he took a deep breath and began, "The main battle was a distraction, as we already guess. A smaller force of Kold troops were sent to Earth, but they weren't attacking the planet. Their target was the people, just the people. Not the land. They didn't care about the resources or Imperial targets. They were just after the humans… and the _hansaiya_."

The King raised one critical eyebrow. "Why?"

Here, the Prince paused. This was the part that he had the most difficulty deciding on how to explain. Not because it was particularly difficult to say, but rather, he feared his father's reaction. "Father… they know. I don't know how they know, I haven't figured that part out yet, but the Kold family knows that Grandfather was trying to use Earth to breed a new Legendary."

To the Prince's great surprise, his father did not react in any of the ways he predicted he might. The King did not exclaim '_What!?_' and snarl at him that he was incompetent to not have discovered the source of the leak. He did not take a 'punish the messenger' approach and smack the Prince across the face. In fact, for a couple of seconds, he didn't really react much at all.

Then, "I… see… And they were seeking to destroy all humans and whatever _hansaiya_ they could find in order to prevent that."

"Yes." The Prince nodded. Not quite sure how to handle this new calm version of his father. It was very disconcerting. "But there's more. According to the officer that lead the attack, the Kolds are direct decedents of the original Ice-jin that came to Vegeta-sei centuries ago. They want revenge for their ancestor and are trying to destroy us. Not just the humans and the _hansaiya_, but _all_ Saiyans -every person with Saiyan blood. Father, this is different from our normal skirmishes with the Ascendency."

"Yes. It is." The King agreed, an odd tone to his voice. He looked his son up and down, examining him critically, sizing him up. Looking past the unpolished armor and ridiculous purple hair -made all the worse by Bra's stylings-, he was examining the boy not as a Prince or even as his son, but as a warrior. He was strong. His _ki_ was already greater than the King's own. But he lacked focus and drive. He was spoilt and he was lazy. Vegeta locked eyes with his son. "Now, more than ever, we need the Legendary."

There was silence for one… two… three beats.

The two men did nothing more than stare at one another, their eyes locked. The King's meaning was clear.

But the Prince said, "M-me? But I'm not…"

"You will train until you ascend." And that was the end of that. No more discussion was necessary. That was final.

The Prince looked down, averting his eyes. There was no arguing with his father. Of all the _hansaiya_ in the Empire, he was the only direct decedent of the Legendary. If the Legendary were ever to appear again, it had to be him. If it wasn't him… "Yes, Father."

But, just to drive the point home, the King continued, "You know what would happen if another _hansaiya_ were to ascend before you do."

"He kills both of us and takes over the monarchy and mother and Bra are left to his mercy."

"See that, that doesn't happen." The King commanded. "If the Legendary is fated to reappear, it _must_ be _you_!"

…


	12. More Powerful Than They Appear

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or its related characters. All is the property of FUNamation, Studio Toei, Fuji TV, and Toriyama Akira. I'm just borrowing them for some light-heated entertainment. Same disclaimer applies for Sailor Moon and related characters.

Space Opera

Chapter Twelve: More Powerful Than They Appear

"So, you're actually from right here on Earth?" Goten asked for what might have been the third time that day.

He didn't quite believe it when, as Official Liaison between the Empire and Moon Kingdom agents, the first thing he asked was to inquire where Sailor Ceres had gone, since he didn't see her with the others when he arrived back at the Governor's Palace. They had promptly told hem that she 'went home', as if this should have been the most obvious thing ever. Goten was crestfallen, thinking that meant she'd gone back to the moon and they couldn't have their date. Then the Princess laughed and informed him that Valese wasn't Lunarian, she was from right here on Earth and she just went home to her parents.

Needless to say, he didn't believe that.

A Sailor Senshi, yet not Lunarian. A native to Earth. Yeah, right! What kind of fool did they take him for.

He was skeptical all the way up to the front door of her house. Then her uncommonly over-protective parents answered the door, invited him inside and proceeded to give him an interview that he wasn't gonna call an 'interrogation' only because it did not involve any form of physical torture. Valese's father, an unremarkable man of average hight, average build, and nondescript brown hair asked him how Goten knew his daughter, where they met, where Goten planned to take her today, what his intentions were, how they could be reached, etc.

Valese's mother, a woman as remarkably beautiful as her husband was plain, was much gentler with him. She asked Goten to call her Cere-cere instead of Mrs. Doe. One would think that inviting him to address her by her first name implied some sort of affection towards him. But then she promptly asked him how long he'd been with the Fleet, how much money he made in a year, what his expected pension was upon leaving the Fleet… things like that.

In short, while Valese's father was concerned with the immediate threat Goten presented to his daughter's virtue, Cere-cere was making sure her daughter wasn't wasting her time on a suitor that had little to offer.

Finally, they deemed him worthy enough to take her out for ice cream.

That was what brought them -more or less- to this moment. Goten, passing a cone of soft cream to Valese (whom had waited patiently by the park fountain) and asking a question he'd already asked several times already, as if the answer would change. "So, you're actually from right here on Earth?"

"Yup." She smiled, accepting the offered cone, not appearing to be irritated in the least by his repeated question and continuing disbelief. Instead, she looked at her ice cream in confusion. "Where's the spoon?"

"Spoon?" Goten blinked. "No, you don't eat it with a spoon."

"But… wouldn't that make your hands all sticky?" She pressed, gazing up at him, innocent, and trusting, and completely ignorant.

"No. You lick it. Like this." He demonstrated.

"Oh!" She smiled, her whole face lighting up with understanding. Then she took a lick of her own ice cream, looking up at Goten for approval. Oh lord! Girls really shouldn't make eye contact while licking ice cream -especially not vanilla ice cream- it tended to make men thing of… well, now was not the time for that. But, _my gosh_! she was so cute!

"Are you sure you're from Earth?" After all, who didn't know how to eat ice cream?

"Yes. I'm sure." She smiled up at him, not seeming the least annoyed by his constant questioning.

He decided to drop it for now. Goten was still utterly confused as to how someone native to Earth could become a Sailor Senshi when they've never even _been_ to the Moon Kingdom before. But then, there was a lot the Saiyans didn't understand about the Sailor Senshi. He kinda wanted to ask Valese more about it, but he had the feeling that she didn't really know much more than he did. Plus, he didn't want to spoil their date by talking shop.

"So… ya wanna walk and eat?"

"Okay." She shrugged.

They wandered about for a bit, alternating between talking and licking their respective ice creams. Discussing things like Goten's insane family, Valese's over-protective parents, movies Goten watched, books Valese read, everything and anything but the Fleet or the Senshi. No shop talk on dates. That was one of Goten's rules. Trunks had a similar one -never mention or allude to his status as a Prince on dates- but they both amounted to the same thing. Both men wanted their women to be interested in _them_, not their positions. Valese wasn't going out with the Captain of the Prince's flagship, she was going out with Son Goten. Likewise, Goten wasn't going out with Sailor Ceres, he was going out with Valese.

Their walk lead them all around the park twice before they finally decided to alter their course and head back into the city. They passed by shop windows and commented on their wares. It was as they were walking through the shopping district that they bumped into someone.

Quite literally.

She was walking out of a store just as Goten and Valese were walking by it. She carried so many packages that she couldn't even see over them all and walked right smack into Valese. Both women fell to the ground, packages, bags, and boxes falling every which way. Goten rushed to help both women back to their feet and pick up the strewn packages.

"Damn it!" The newcomer cursed, picking up her pink hat and dusting it off. She replaced it back on her blond head with a huff, frost-blue eyes looking over all her new purchases on the ground in disappointment. "Some of this stuff was non-returnable. Now what am I gonna-" She cut herself off abruptly and really looked at the man helping her collect her belonging. "Ohmygosh! Goten!?"

He looked back at her in confusion.

Valese came up beside him and slithered one hand possessively around his arm.

"It is you!" She continued, no longer caring for her shopping all over the sidewalk. "Wow, I haven't seen you in, like, forever!"

There was a pause in which Goten was sure he was supposed to say something like, 'Oh, yeah. So have've you been lately?' but instead what came out was, "Um… do I know you?"

"Oh. Oh, right! You haven't seen me since my nose came in." She smiled a self deprecating smile, and put a hand up to her face, covering her nose so that it looked like she didn't have one. "Recognize me now? …Its me, Marron. Kuririn's daughter. C'mon, we were kids together."

Then he recognized her. Oh yeah! Marron! Trunks used to make fun of her because it looked like she didn't have a nose. Now he knew who she was. "Ohmygosh! I haven't seen you since before I started my term with the Fleet! How've you been lately?"

Before Marron could answer, Valese cleared her throat conspicuously, her grip on Goten's arm tightening possessively.

"Marron?" She said, a polite smile on her face. "Hi. I'm Valese. Its so nice to meet one of Goten's friends."

Marron's frost-colored eyes darted from Valese's smile to her almost vice-like grip on Goten's arm and back again. She instantly understood what was going on and backed off. "Oh! Are you on a date? I'm so sorry. We should catch up some other time. Whenever you're free. Just call me at home. I still live with my parents. Kame House. You remember the number. If not, I'm sure Chichi-san can give it to you. I better get going. It was nice meeting you, Valese-chan."

…

"All men are created unequal."

The Prince had long since surpassed the point in his training where Nappa's guidance was necessary. Once upon a time, the training circle was a fun place, a place where he could learn new things, be praised and encouraged for his quick wits and mastery of new techniques and be rewarded with the chance to test them on Goten. But over the years, the Prince learned everything his Master had to teach him and Nappa's role in his training fell more towards the background. Now, the older man mostly kept out of the way. Leaning against the wall of the gravity room, his arms crossed over his chest, and criticized the Prince's form. Or, when he could find nothing wrong, he would quote the '_Nine-Thousand and One Teachings of Yasai'_. Nappa's personal favorite was number seventy-nine.

_79. All men are created unequal. _

Which he then immediately followed with number fourteen.

_14. It has long been known that one tonton runs faster than another. But which one?_

Two different versions of the '_Nine-Thousand and One Teachings of Yasai'_ were published on Earth some time ago in both English and Japanese -with translator notes by Son Gohan. In them, the word 'tonton' -an animal that does not exist on Earth- was replaced by 'horse', so the saying read, '_It has long been known that one horse is faster than another. But which one?_' In the translator notes, Gohan explains that its not really the anime that's important but the meaning of the lesson, that no two members of the same group are alike. One horse may be faster than another, one warrior might be stronger than another, one politician might be less dishonest than another. What the lesson was trying to express was that its difficult to predict outcomes.

Nappa used the lesson to remind the Prince that just because he was a decedent of the Legendary, that did not mean he would be the one to ascend. It was a power he must work for and earn. That was why he trained. It wasn't enough that the Prince had a great deal of raw power. Power in and of itself was did not win battles. It was the application of said power. How a warrior used his _ki_ to his best advantage. Not just _ki,_ but hand-to-hand techniques as well. The Prince's sward was taken away from training and Nappa put him to work running through the the old and basic _kata_. After all, the basics must be maintained. They were the foundation for more complicated techniques later. As Nappa reminded him with number ninety-four from the '_Teachings of Yasai_'.

_94. A tower built on stone, stands ever strong and vigilant. A tower built on swamp… will sink into the swamp._

…And because Gohan has a sense of humor sometimes. He left that translation as is with no tweaking and actually got the rights from Monty Python to place a frame of that scene from Holy Grail as an illustration on the opposite page. Did doing that imply a slightly different meaning to the lesson Yasai was trying to teach? Maybe. But it was still funny. And besides, who really knew what Yasai was trying to say anyway? He lived hundreds of years ago and, quite frankly, was a little eccentric. Nothing illustrated that more than number one thousand.

_1000. When arguing with your mate and it turns out you are right, apologize immediately!_

Yeah… that one was almost never quoted outside of historical debates or academic studies. And no one ever put it into practice. Not to mention, it was directly contradicted by number six.

_6. Never apologize. It shows weakness._

"Your footing is wrong!" Nappa snapped, breaking the Prince's train of thought. Letting his mind wander during training was a habit of his. As his father constantly reminds him, he lacked focus. "Do it over. Correctly this time."

The Prince spun around to snarl at his old teacher. "Goddamnit, Nappa! I've been at this for hours!"

"Then you should know it by now, Your Highness." The older man replied calmly. He had seen three generations of Vegeta-temper. The Prince's tantrums did not phase him. "Since you clearly do not, you will do it again."

The Prince snarled a second time at his mentor. His hands balled into fists. He hadn't quite decided yet if he was going to simply curse at the older man with every profanity he knew in every language he knew, or if he would actually attack him outright. But before the Prince could make up his mind, Nappa cut of that trail of thought as well.

"Break!" He said.

To a human, a 'break' might mean a chance to sit down. Have some water. Catch your breath. Relax. Those things might be true for humans. But in Saiyan training, a 'break' just meant a different kind of exercise. In the case of Nappa's training, pushups, laps around the gravity room, side-hops… things like that. In this case, he ordered pushups. One handed, handstand pushups -switching hands every set of fifty. If the Prince lost count, he would have to begin again.

Mumbling and growling under his breath, the Prince did as he was told. "One.. two… three…"

It was after his first hand switch that the Prince's frustrations started to evaporate enough for him to become chatty. "Fifty-three… fifty-four… Hey, Nappa? …Fifty-six… fifty-seven…"

"Hm?"

"What happened ten years ago? …Sixty… sixty-one…"

The older man raised on quizzical eyebrow. "Could you be more specific in the question, Your Highness?"

"Sixty-thee… sixty-four… With me and the Lunarians." The Prince elaborated.

Nappa straitened. Uncrossing his arms, he regarded the Prince carefully. Giving him a measured look before finally asking, "Why do you want to know, Your Highness?"

"Sixty-six…" The Prince also paused, both in his count and the pushups themselves. He put his second arm on the ground. Nappa hadn't given him permission to stop, but this was something he felt needed to be looking at the man to discuss -since he too seemed so wary of the Sailor Senshi. The Prince dropped back to his feet and stood, wiping sweat from his forehead, his lavender pony-tail sticking to the back of his neck. He brushed wet bangs out of his face and said, "Father wasn't there. He was here on Vegeta-sei. So he didn't see what happened, he only knows what you told him. So, what did you tell him to make him so wary of the Lunarians?"

Nappa sighed. "You don't remember because of the oozaru amnesia, but they took you down, Your Highness."

"That much I do know, Nappa. That's not what I asked."

"But that's exactly what I told your father." The older man insisted. "I don't think you quite understand the significance of that. You were young and untrained, but things like that rarely matter for the oozaru form. The oozaru form is near unstoppable except by another oozaru or a combatant trained to handle oozaru -like me. But they brought you down. One man _and a little girl _took down an Elite Saiyan in his oozaru form! Do you understand the sheer magnitude of that?"

Actually… yes he did.

The implications were lost on him when the Princess gave her account of events. He must have still been to shocked by her ambush in the engine room to understand the full weight of it. But when Nappa explained it… it was frightening. The Senshi were much stronger than they appeared. Much stronger even than he originally thought. The Prince knew they had powers he didn't understand. They fought without _ki_, he couldn't sense their attacks or predict their movies. That alone made them something to be cautious of, but apparently their depth of power went deeper than that. They were a small kingdom, but if just two of them could take down an oozaru, then the whole kingdom certainly had enough power to rival the Empire.

More than ever now, the Prince wanted to make sure the Moon Kingdom was on their side.

"Now then." Nappa snapped the Prince back to the here and now. "I can't help but notice that you've stopped your count, Your Highness. Start over."

…

Paperwork was a kind of slow, evil torture.

Who would have guessed that being King of a vast Empire that spanned the galaxy would involve so goddamn much busy-work!?

Vegeta cracked his knuckles in irritation. The woman was so much better at this stuff than he was. That was the main reason why he left the great majority of it to her when he was away, at war, or otherwise off planet. But there were some things that the Queen just didn't have the authority to sign. These she set in a neat stack to the side of the desk for when he returned.

It wasn't very much. The stack just looked taller than it actually was because datapads were thicker than paper. Suppressing a sigh, the King resigned himself to long hours of reading, sore eyes, and a headache. He reached for the document on the top of the stack. Noted it was dated the same day that his son arrived back at the capitol, and began to read.

He froze after the first line.

One thing! He told the boy _one thing_. '_Stay away from the Lunarians_'. How hard was that to do? Really? _Really_!? How difficult would that have been for him? But no. In classic Trunks-fashion, the boy had deliberately disobeyed him. Instead of keeping his distance from the Moon Kingdom and staying the hell away from the Lunarians, the brat instead signed a treaty with them! Oh, he was going to kill that boy!

The Prince was always trying to test his patience. The hair was annoying. Long hair was a liability in battle, it could be grabbed and pulled by an opponent. But Vegeta tolerated it, it was a small thing to fight over. The sword vexed him slightly more. Weapons were a crutch for the weak and his son was not weak. But the boy was skilled with it and continuously insisted that it was a special sword that granted him an ambiguous extra status. Vegeta wasn't sure whether or not he actually believed that, but he let the boy keep his stupid sword anyway. Constantly tinkering with the ships in the fleet and occasionally -just once so far- causing the ship to have to be decommissioned was by far the most costly of the Prince's habits. But he was his mothers son and the love of all things mechanical was practically woven into his DNA. While he may not like it, the King knew that there was just no helping that side of his son's nature.

All those irritations and vexations he could tolerate.

But not this. The Lunarian's were a danger to the boy and the rest of the Saiyan race. According to Nappa they already managed to defeat his son once, subduing the powerful and formidable oozaru transformation. Vegeta did not want that kind of threat so close to his son. That damn feeling of '_paternal instinct_' rearing its ugly head again. The Lunarian's hurt his boy once, he did not want to risk them hurting him a second time. Or possibly even killing him this time. No. That was something the King would not think about. So, he gave the brat one simple order, '_stay away from the Moon Kingdom_'. And what does he go and do…? He enlists their help in defending Earth from Kold's genocide. Signs a treaty with them.

It was all here, in his own words, with his own thumb print as signature. A copy of the original document sent from Earth.

'_Earth is safe_', indeed! What happens when the Lunarians decide they want the planet for themselves? The boy wasn't thinking.

Vegeta stood. Taking the contract in hand, he stormed from his study and stalked the Imperial Palace towards the training wing where he sensed the boy's _ki_ next to Nappa's.

They were in the locker rooms, the boy having just finished a much needed shower after his rigorous session with his old mentor. Nappa may not be as strong as the members of House Vegeta, but he had been training the sons of Kings for generations and he knew how to push them without overtaxing himself. Even after cleaning up, the boy looked like hell. Like all he wanted in the world was six hours uninterrupted in a soft bed. Vegeta was not in the mood to give him that.

He shoved the datapad under the brat's nose as he maneuvered his legs into a clean pair of blue armor-pants. "What the _hell_ is this?"

The boy glanced up at his father, eyes tired and impatient. "Its a datapad, Father."

Vegeta muttered some very colorful Saiyago curses before grabbing a fist-full of the boy's lavender hair and shoving his nose almost to the pad's screen -rather like one might discipline a dog that's just made a mess of your brand new white-shag carpet. "Do not try my patience, boy!" He snarled. "You know very well what I'm talking about. I told you to stay away from those pathetic, soft-hearted Moonies! So, now explain _this_ to me!"

The Prince skimmed over his hastily written treaty. Noted a few typos he'd missed the first time around -little things like 'form' instead of 'from'- and cringed. He noted the Lunarian King's thumb-print at the bottom and found that he was surprised it wasn't the Princess who'd signed. Not that he knew King Endymion or any other Lunarians particularly well, but he would have expected the Princess to be to the one to agree to the terms if for no other reason than she seemed to be infatuated with him. For some reason, the Prince was a little disappointed that she hadn't signed. Maybe she hadn't liked his terms and had argued against the contract. Maybe, after she read how little he was willing to offer, she decided she didn't like him quite so much anymore. For some reason, that thought bothered him.

"I'm waiting…" The King tossed the datapad on a locker room bench and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at his son with impatience.

Finally, the Prince answered, "They're useful, Father. Their powers are different from ours and I want that power for the Empire. We can terminate the treaty at any time. It was not written to be permanently binding."

"You will terminate the contract right now!" The King commanded. "The Lunarians are dangerous and I do not want them loitering within my borders."

"Why not use them at least until we've dealt with the Kold threat?" The Prince argued. "Then terminate the treaty. I understand the possibility of a threat their powers present, why not aim that power at our enemies?"

"They have already shown they will not hesitate to turn those powers against a Saiyan." The King reminded him. "They already beat you once! You're foolish to invite an enemy to your back."

"I don't think they're enemies. And besides, _Kakarot _beat _you_ once -more than once- and you consider him one of your greatest allies!" When he was actually alive and around, of course.

"Do not change the subject, boy!" Vegeta snapped.

"I'm not changing the subject!" The Prince snapped back, beginning to sound like a petulant child now. "I see no difference between what Kakarot did to you and what Usagi-chan did to me!"

There was a beat of silence.

The King raised a critical and quizzical eyebrow. "Usagi… chan…?"

The Prince realized his mistake instantly. But there was no way to take it back. He hadn't meant to call the Lunarian Princess by her first name, it just spilled out. In his head, he was gonna refer to her as 'the Lunarian from ten years ago' or maybe just 'that girl'. They weren't even on a first name basis. Damn. Now his father was going to get the very wrong idea and draw the very wrong conclusion. Damn. Damn. Damn. Oh well. It could be worse. He could have called her 'Chibi-Usa', the nickname he heard the other two Senshi call her back at the Bowman Space Dock. Thank goodness for small favors, he supposed.

"I see." Said the King softly, almost dangerously. "So, its like then, is it? They've somehow bewitched you."

"Its not like that at all!" The Prince insisted.

"No?" Vegeta asked, scrutinizing his son. "We'll see. I will take care of this personally. Your judgment in this matter has obviously been clouded. You will stay here to protect the capitol, and your mother and sister should the Ice-jin change their targets. I will be returning to Earth to deal with these Lunarian encroachers personally."

"But, Father-" He was silenced with a glare.

"You have your orders!" The King snapped.

"Yes, Sir." The Prince saluted his submission, one fist over his heart. He wondered just how bad the fallout between his father and the Lunarians might be. As he was now well aware of, the Lunarians had enough power to take down an Elite in his oozaru form. They were far more powerful than they appeared. How would they react to his father's less than diplomatic approach to international politics?


End file.
